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Canberra Today 14°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Welsh / Big Al comes clean on family links to Colliers

ACT Opposition Leader Alistair Coe has gone on the full disclosure front foot in an attempt to clear the perceived murky and incestuous waters of the pond in which local developers/builders and the Land Development Authority exist.

Mike Welsh
Mike Welsh.

Following criticism of Colliers International by auditor-general Dr Maxine Cooper, Coe disclosed to Assembly ethics adviser Stephen Skehill a family friendship between his parents-in-law and the principal of the company that advised the LDA on several projects.

ANU students who have been sexually assaulted will soon have access to a full-time, on-campus counsellor. The extent of the sexual assaults at ANU has been revealed from the first national, university, sex-abuse survey. The ANU is already working with the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre to have an officer on campus five days a week.

MEANTIME, ANU Students’ Association president James Connolly has shared a painful account of being the victim of sexual assault. Connolly had resolved to remain silent about the assault that occurred in July, 2016. But last month the 22-year-old law student decided “to use the platform that the ANUSA presidency affords me to have a voice” and speak out on behalf of “those who have felt so silenced and disempowered that they couldn’t report… I am one of you”.

The Domino’s pizza fleet at UC. Photo by Mike Welsh

STILL on campus UC sports scientist Prof Dick Telford, a campaigner for healthier primary school students (healthy kids = better NAPLAN scores) may also want to cast his eye over the diets and lack of exercise of his own students. Domino’s Pizza has opened an outlet in the heart of ressies at UC and judging by the fleet of delivery bikes parked outside, business is booming. Telford would no doubt be troubled that many are ordering the nutritionally questionable pies but few seem to be taking the short and physically beneficial stroll to collect them.

MYSTERY surrounded the Canberra screening of the anti-vaxing documentary “Vaxxed”. To avoid protests, promotion for the 90-minute film was limited to basics such as start/finish time and experts available for a Q&A session. Ticket holders were advised of the exact venue two hours before the doors opened.

DESPITE racking up $120,000 in fines imposed by the NRL over post-match press conference rants, Raiders coach Ricky Stuart is not taking a backward step. The dual international was in top form again after the Green Machine’s recent 20-14 loss to the Storm, “going postal” on the refs’ performance. A frustrated Stuart said: “The best thing the NRL has done is just keeping fining me and whacking the hell out of me, so I don’t say anything.”

FORMER Canberra sports reporter Erin Molan was quick to apologise after using bad language on TV. “The Footy Show” star’s chair collapsed beneath her as she read Nine’s sport bulletin causing her to let fly with “s***”. Molan later tweeted: “I unfortunately used a word that isn’t appropriate. I am so sorry for that. It was a reflex reaction and Lord I feel awful”.

OUR High Commissioner to Singapore, Bruce Gosper, apparently has a soft spot for the capital. In a feature in Singapore’s “Straits Times” where ambassadors nominate their favourite destinations, the 59-year-old diplomat raved: “Canberra offers great national, cultural and educational institutions; lifestyles attuned to sport and recreation, whether high-level sports, cycling, bushwalking or family-friendly activities; fine food and wine and some good nightlife; as well as national parks, and great beaches and decent ski fields about two hours away”.

CANBERRA’S town crier Joseph Mcgrail-Bateup has taken to gofundme to help with the purchase of a new kilt after the Queanbeyan-Palerang Shire installed him as its first TC. Mcgrail-Bateup already sports the Canberra bluebell tartan for events in the region and now requires the appropriate kilt for across the border.

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Mike Welsh

Mike Welsh

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