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Canberra Today 13°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Welsh / Snarling Malcolm ‘Pitbull’ sets the dogs loose

WHEN Malcolm Turnbull went mongrel on Bill Shorten’s political pedigree in the Federal Parliament, it took political watchers back in time. A time when one PJ Keating and his eloquent ilk ruled the despatch box. A time when insightful and creative insults were flung with surgical precision at those on the other side of the house.

Mike Welsh.

“Pitbull” Turnbull’s lashing of “lapdog” Shorten may have been a prime-time TV hit, but he potentially set the dogs loose for any ambitious but less talented members to trump him.

But they need to be wary; a sharp political tongue in the wrong hands could result in the loss of an eye. Keating and Co were the masters of and peerless in the art of Australian political “politeness”.

ON doggie pedigrees the ACT Opposition has pledged to “take a look” at legislation surrounding dangerous dogs after recent stats revealed a spike in attacks. But it will fail, as have others who have waded into this dog’s breakfast of an issue.

The headlines wailed “vicious”, “savage”, and “maulings”, but the fact is dogs do bite and there are certain breeds that bite harder and more often.

A SMATTERING of speculation on the new ACT number plate slogan was reportedly overheard at weekend dinner parties. Voting for the slogan has closed and the verdict is due in March. The smart money’s on “Canberra the bush capital” or “CBR – Driving the nation”.

Shame my nomination of the vacuously simplistic yet dexterously sophisticated, “Canberra – it is what it is”, won’t get a look in. It says absolutely nothing but sounds like something.

STILL on dinner parties and the venue for one bizarre Canberra gathering at which some guests were informed in advance the host would die, still unsurprisingly rates a mention almost two decades on. The death of Joe Cinque at the hands of uni student Anu Singh in October, 1997, has spawned several books, a documentary, two feature films and a stage play. Last week came a news report on the imminent demolition of 79 Antill Street, Downer; the house where Cinque tragically died of a lethal dose of heroin.

LATE last year ancient tradition met social media when local actor Joe McGrail-Bateup shared on Facebook his appointment as Canberra’s new town crier.

Joe asked his FB friends – including me – to keep the news under their collective hats until Chief Minister Andrew Barr made the “official” announcement.

Unfortunately, I found it difficult respecting that embargo, considering the job is town crier.

FROM Facebook to Twitter, where the Greens’ member for Murrumbidgee, Caroline Le Couteur, tweeted a response to a question she asked in the Assembly in December on the lack of a public bus service to Canberra Airport.

Minister for Transport and City Services Yvette Berry responded thus: “The Gov has committed to the implementation of RAPID bus services to the airport by 2020”.

I’d hate to chuck Berry under a bus so early in the year, but could things be moved a bit more quickly on a RAPID bus service?

IT was local TV news anchors (home and) away in Canberra with the launch of Channel Nine’s local service on Capital Television. Former ABC News breakfast weather presenter Vanessa O’Hanlon is the new anchor of the bulletin, which boasts three journos based in Canberra.

However, Ms O’Hanlon will remain at the Willoughby studios in Sydney, from where she also delivers other regional bulletins. But the popular weather girl has promised not to be a stranger and will head down the Hume to her new “home” as often as she can.

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Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

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