CC is celebrating the threat of competition on the price of electricity and gas in the ACT. And you can, too.

Those nice interlopers Origin Energy have been helpfully sending out letters offering discounts on electricity of 14 per cent.

Which seems pretty tempting until you call 131493 and the even lovelier people at ActewAGL will cut your power bill by 15 per cent and, there’s more, they take 10 per cent off your spiralling gas bill.

No bundling, no tricks, no questions asked – you just have to make a commitment to love them for another year and they thank you for your loyalty. And it jumps to 16 per cent if you’re a business.

Don’t miss out – call 131493.

Parking priority

CLUBS are usually hypersensitive to the needs of disabled members, so this revelation of reprioritising in the carpark of the Vikings Club in Tuggeranong is astonishing, but there’s the photo.

“The most advantageous disabled car space has been painted over in favour of the poker machine technician,” writes an inconvenienced  disabled member.

“The ‘supervisor’ defended the action saying the technician could never find a park.  When I pointed out that they could have reserved a normal park just a few metres away, she said it had not been her decision.”

Tough medicine

THE leviathan that is Defence Health has unhappily written to shocked fund members saying the Calvary hospital network has given them the  flick.

Defence Health says the parties couldn’t agree on a future contract because Calvary was proposing “unreasonable increases”, significantly higher than increases the fund had agreed with other private hospitals.

They brought in the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman, but Calvary hasn’t blinked beyond terminating Defence Health’s agreements with the Calvary John James Hospital, Deakin, and the Calvary Private, Bruce, from November 21.

Given the huge private-health clout Calvary enjoys in the ACT, shopping around becomes problematical for Defence Health members who will be exposed to “significant out-of-pocket expenses”.

CHIEF Minister Katy Gallagher seems to be enjoying the funny side of the prime ministerial posteriors of the Netherlands’ Mark Rutte and our own Tony Abbott as they plant a silver birch at the National Arboretum.

INXS singer to the rescue

INXS frontman Ciaran Gribbin is “delighted” to be performing at a “cheeky boy’s” fundraising event at The Abbey, Gold Creek on Sunday, November 23 in support of a very special five-year-old local boy with an acquired brain injury.

“It’s so great to be part of an amazing gig for such a wonderful cause,” says Gribbin.

Little Shaye, pictured, has been living with the debilitating condition and hard-to-treat epileptic seizures since he was four days old. His home needs modifications and his ongoing treatments are great.

Doors open at 6.30pm. Tickets are $20 online ( through eventopia) or $25 at the door.

Hmmms…

LIBERAL pollie Brendan Smyth is commendably taking to the stage to sing in “Canberra Takes 2”, the SIDS and Kids fundraiser at Queanbeyan’s Bicentennial Hall on November 22. In being “twinned” with Lorena Quinlivan, he is described as “ACT Deputy Leader of the Opposition”, which will come as a surprise to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition of almost two years, Alistair Coe.

“I HAVE always taken the view that people should pay the tax they need to pay,” the Chief Minister said in reassuring the community that Ikea got no tax breaks to build here. CC’s not convinced anyone ever feels the need to pay tax.

ACTEW’s Drinking Water Quality Report 2014 reveals that the average daily consumption per person is 314 litres. Take away a couple of litres for personal consumption and that’s a lot of Australia’s highest-quality drinking water disappearing down the loo and on to the roses.

BARTON’S Maple & Clove cafe has won the strangely titled “Women’s Health Fork of Approval” in being named in the inaugural list of “50 Healthiest Cafes and Restaurants in Australia”. Cool.

COMMENT from Michael Hermes, son of former chief magistrate Clarrie Hermes, whose name is enshrined on a Gungahlin drive that TAMS has managed to spell “Hermies” in a large road sign on the Barton Highway. “My father was a great team player. He would have loved this mistake as a chance to say: ‘There’s no “I” in Hermes!’