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

Moore / A big blessing for the little people

IT’S easy to whinge about the ACT Assembly, but sometimes it is worth reflecting on its pluses.

Michael Moore.
Michael Moore.
Despite the old catchcries of: “We didn’t want it in the first place”; “We voted against it”; “It’s just a Mickey Mouse Assembly” and “We should have just had a town council”, the Mr Fluffy debacle illustrates the Assembly’s advantages.

When Chief Minister Katy Gallagher provided her update in the Assembly the public gallery was filled with people affected by this disaster. And it is a disaster. More than 1000 homes are affected, nearly double the number that were destroyed by the 2003 bushfires.

There is an important difference. The suddenness of the bushfires was overwhelming and added to the trauma of the whole city, which immediately shared the grief and rallied support. The loose-fill asbestos insulation calamity has been a much more gradual grieving process. The heartache must be even worse. Instead of the outpouring of support for the bushfire victims – even internationally – Mr Fluffy owners have had a slow struggle to understand what will happen to them.

The Chief Minister and other members of the Assembly clearly feel the pain of their constituents and are committed to ridding the city of the houses that present an ongoing threat to community health.

The ACT Assembly is close to the people of the Territory. Gallagher told the chamber of “the social isolation and guilt that have come with learning of the risks of living in a Mr Fluffy home. Friends that no longer visit. Play dates and sleepovers, which are such normal activities for most households, stopped suddenly”.

Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson, declared: “On behalf of the opposition I acknowledge this has been a difficult journey; I acknowledge there is a long way to go. But your parliamentarians on this side of the chamber will be standing with you to make sure that, once and for all, Mr Fluffy is resolved in the ACT.”

In marked contrast, examine the view of the Commonwealth. For all of those who would like to hark back to the days when the paternalistic federal government injected huge funds into the development of Canberra, it is time to think again.

Under their watch and failure to regulate, Mr Fluffy was allowed to operate in Canberra. And now, despite significant lobbying from Brianna Heseltine and the Fluffy Owners’ Action Group, the ACT government and all ACT federal MPs and senators, the federal government’s contribution is pathetic. A concessional loan! So what? Thanks for nothing, Senator Pontius Abetz.

Residents across the border in Queanbeyan and the south coast have also been the victims of Mr Fluffy. The NSW and federal governments seem completely disinterested. State government intervention is needed to boost the capacity of already cash-strapped local government to cope with the costs, dislocation and management of this situation.

There is also a philosophical element at play. The more conservative the government, the stronger the belief in personal responsibility and non-interference by government. The ideology fuels the view that it is just bad luck or lack of due diligence when either originally commissioning insulation or when purchasing the home. The owner’s fault – the owner has to wear it. In the minds of the ultra-conservatives it is not the business of government.

When Katy Gallagher shed tears in the Assembly, in speaking to the media and when she has dealt with families, it is clear that she feels their pain deeply.

However, she still has a broad responsibility to the whole community. She told the Assembly: “We believe it is the right decision. We have sought to balance fairness for homeowners with a scheme which the ACT community can afford”. And later she was appropriately frank acknowledging “it is not what everybody wants”.

It is the time to reflect on the advantages of having a small parliament close to the people.

Michael Moore was an independent member of the ACT Legislative Assembly (1989 to 2001) and was minister for health.

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Ian Meikle, editor

Michael Moore

Michael Moore

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