A tree canopy in Dickson. Photo: Paul Costigan

With the news that Alistair Coe’s gone green the rest of the week seemed to turn beige. It’s “Seven Days” with IAN MEIKLE.

AT last! A politician who has truly woken up to the tragic tree crisis in Canberra. 

Not Labor, who can barely muster the political fortitude to water the ones we’ve got. Nor the Greens, who have shamefully borne mute witness to the loss of 40,000 trees.

Astonishingly, it’s the Liberals – and on World Environment Day leader Alistair Coe made the election promise to plant a million trees over the next 10 years – that’s 100,000 a year, 2000 a week, 400 a day! Brilliant.

“We want to make sure that there is a good tree canopy right across this city, it shouldn’t just be the domain parts of the city but indeed everyone should have the benefit of having green space and trees in their suburb,” says Comrade Al. 

MEANWHILE, over the border in emerging Googong a householder was politely defending his own green space and shooing the media pack off a newly re-seeded lawn when Scott Morrison turned up in his street to use the Queanbeyan suburb as a backdrop to spruik $25,000 cash grants for residential construction.

“Sorry, mate,” shouts the resident. “That’s all good,” says the Prime Minister with a big thumbs up.

The HomeBuilder grants are for home improvements starting at $150,000 to engineer a tradie-led recovery for the building industry, but Labor has doubts. 

“There aren’t too many battlers out there who have a lazy $150,000,” says Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese.

The money might have been better directed to having the industry build accommodation for homeless people than use taxpayers’ cash on private projects, 2CC drive-time announcer Leon Delaney sagely suggested. The only consolation? The grant can’t go to swimming pools. 

“SURELY the Shane Rattenbury calling for the resignation of the shadow minister for emergency services because she was picked up for a traffic offence is not the Shane Rattenbury, Minister for Justice and Corrective Services, who last year confessed to the possession and use of narcotics? MDMA I think it was,” muses former Chief Minister Jon Stanhope in a withering comment to the news story on citynews.com.au 

“While I understand that that particular Shane believes that since he was at the time young and silly and that it was right that he not be prosecuted, I cannot believe he would apply to another politician a different standard than he would apply to himself.” 

WE have a new ACT police chief in Neil Gaughan and he was paraded out, after much administrative rigmarole, for mass-media interviews. Like others, “CityNews” reporter Danielle Nohra was allocated a criminally short 20 minutes (we got a little longer because someone cancelled) to get the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth from Deputy Commissioner Gaughan. “He’s a pretty top guy; said all the right things, but seems like he’ll bring a bit of fun to the role,” she cheerfully reported back. 

The clock-watching police media managers, who taped the interviews (to be used in evidence against us?), clearly have no idea about the vagaries of writing face-to-face profiles. By way of a comparison and a shameless excuse to skite, I had longer when I interviewed David Bowie! 

But police chiefs these days don’t stay long in the job. Neil’s the fifth since 2010 (preceded by Roman Quaedvlieg, Rudi Lammers, Justine Saunders and Ray Johnson) and a far cry from the 16 years of service by the first chief officer of the Commonwealth Police (ACT), Lt-Col Harold Edward Jones OBE, who served from 1927 to 1943 while simultaneously holding the positions of director of the Commonwealth Investigation Bureau and superintendent of the Peace Officer Guard.

MEANWHILE, one for Neil: what does it take to get the police to take some investigative action in this town, bemoans one major car dealership with a hostile ex-customer? The angry man, already facing criminal charges for blatantly damaging cars on the lot, was allegedly caught, after hours, on security cameras hurling rocks over the fence and damaging another five for-sale vehicles. Are plod on site sussing things out? Nope. The apoplectic dealer principal is running across the ceiling with frustration. 

A CIVIC-based chiropractor of my acquaintance, working hard to breathe life into his battered practice, but deprived of his office-working clientele says he has trouble recognising clients these days. It’s not his eyesight, it’s the trackie-dak, ugg-booted, working-from-homers, out of their suits and in town for a quick crack. “They’ve given up on their appearance,” he says. “They’re loving that the boss can’t see them.” 

Ian Meikle is the “CityNews” editor. He can be heard on the “CityNews Sunday Roast” 10am-noon on 2CC.