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Canberra Today 12°/16° | Saturday, March 30, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Macklin / There’s a track leading back…

TRANSPORTATION set the tone of the week’s news with Light Rail taking the lead as Chief Minister Andrew Barr put the weights on PM Malcolm Turnbull for a big contribution to the network.

Robert Macklin
Robert Macklin.
Andrew was emboldened by the PM’s cash splash of $95 million for the Gold Coast tram and his declaration that public transport was back on the Feds’ agenda. What a change from his predecessor who seemingly thought his Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford was spelt quite differently.

AND to underline his commitment to the travelling future, Andrew’s public servants are tootling off on bikes (and helmets) to meetings around the city.

The Justice and Community Safety Directorate this week became the latest to get with the program. Nice idea in theory; but until a separate cycling network is built there’s every prospect of tragedy on the roads. Cars and bikes just don’t mix.

AT least it should free up some parking spaces for the car-travelling public where we paid more than $11 million in fines last financial year. But it won’t affect the most critical areas near our big shopping centres. Weston, for example, is becoming impossible. And the suggested second Cotter Road will only make things worse.

ROADS even caused Opposition Leader Bill Shorten some headaches as the Trade Union Royal Commission heard of false invoices created by his AWU in a deal with the builders of Melbourne’s East-West freeway.

The deal, it’s suggested, allowed builders Thiess-John Holland to deliver the project on “favourable industrial terms”. Chances are Shorten will be recalled to give his side of the story, the very last thing he needs as Turnbull takes a commanding lead in the prime ministerial popularity stakes.

FORMER PM John Howard returned to do a lap around his newly christened “Walk of Wonder” in the Parliamentary Triangle in the obligatory green and gold. Amazing the way his image has been burnished till it fairly glows these days.

YET in far-off Afghanistan, where 41 of our finest lost their lives in the unwinnable war begun under his leadership, the Taliban have cut the main artery, Highway One in Baghlan Province, formerly a government stronghold. In the Charchina district of Uruzgan Province – the Australian area of operations – Afghan military forces hold only the government buildings in the district centre and are under constant siege by the insurgents.

ON a much happier note, our Wallabies thrilled their supporters with a stunning defensive effort against the Welsh that had them striding towards a finals berth. But come what may, the New World of the Southern Hemisphere will walk away with the World Cup.

FINALLY, while Floriade has been a magnificent attraction for the National Capital, the laurel for a truly unexpected success must go to the Arboretum.

And this is many years before its forests have grown to the point where it will be an arboreal wonderland for walking and electric-car tours. Much of the credit must go to the then Chief Minister Jon Stanhope and his cabinet who had the vision and the political courage to pursue it – during a drought! – though they would be long gone by the time it reached fruition.

robert@robertmacklin.com

 

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Robert Macklin

Robert Macklin

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