SANDWICHED between the lunacy of two public holidays on consecutive weeks came a four-day filling of lumpy news for capital dwellers.

I say petulant because, while the rest of Australia sniggers at public servants boo-hooing at having to pay for parking, it’s a blunt blow to decades of custom and practice to get whacked with a gross annual slug of around $5000.

And that’s a lot of disposable income lost to the ACT economy, let alone the effect on lower-paid workers, whose union United Voice estimates the parking impost will cost them 8 per cent of their salary.

The front-page image of tough-talking NCA chief Malcolm Snow befriending a parking machine and extolling the virtues of walking and cycling made Seven Days wonder what was the probability that he’d be queuing for a voucher anytime soon.

AS if that’s not enough, Canberra appears to be doing the heavy lifting on public service job losses with the city on track to shed 6500 positions by 2017. Every public sector job lost makes supporting every private sector job in Canberra just that little bit harder, confirmed by the news that fewer employed bottoms means fewer chairs and desks, which is biting at Canberra’s office furniture traders.

UNSURPRISINGLY then the ABS figures confirming that Canberra experienced the second-largest slump in retail trade in Australia over August. Canberra Business Council chief Chris Faulks extolled the bleeding obvious blaming the continued uncertainty around public service job security… and probably soon parking fees, too.

THEN there was the jaw-dropping admission by the Justice and Community Safety Directorate that despite surveillance by 300 cameras, X-rays, metal detectors, dog patrols, border patrols and strip searches, methamphetamines and ice are still seeping into the Alexander Maconochie Centre.

Seven Days can’t help but wonder if the prison officers can’t control the contraband, what hope have they got of safely managing Chief Minister Katy Gallagher’s pressing demand for a needle exchange service in the hokey?

THE Minister for Misadventure Joy Burch seems to have been seduced by the logic of charming Jeff House from ClubsACT with the cosy announcement that the ACT Government’s new reduced cap on poker machines is to be 4785, around 800 higher than its original “aspirational” target. Howls of protest, including that of Greens Minister Shane Rattenbury, were quickly calling for tougher reforms.

Despite the conflict of the ACT Labor Party enjoying a couple of million from the Labor Club over the past five years, Joy brushed off the community and hotel industry squawking.

STILL on gambling, the ACCC blessed the sale of ACTTAB to Tabcorp saying rather unkindly that it “considered that ACTTAB has not been a vigorous competitor in wagering markets”.

A heartbeat before, ACT auditor-general Maxine Cooper launched a review into the conduct of government agencies involved in the sale process. She’ll report by year’s end, but until then her forensic trunk will be looking at whether awarding Tabcorp a 50-year exclusive totalisator licence was, as critical industry and racing figures suggest, “a sham process”.

THE ABC’s laconic Philip Clark remains the town’s most popular breakfast radio host with 666 ABC Canberra holding off the excitable Scotty and Nige at FM104.7.

Clark, who replaced Ross Solly and has beaten his predecessor’s ratings, signed on only for a year. Seven Days imagines the FMers will be counting the sleeps to his farewell party. Unless…

And there was a football match in Sydney.

Regular columnist Robert Macklin is on leave. Ian Meikle is the editor of “CityNews”.