“The heavy rain, after so many years of drought, has exposed potholes all over Canberra’s usually pristine roads. Getting enough signs near every pothole… very challenging! ‘Your ACT (Labor/Green) Government will be fixing this pothole soon’. Can’t be done!” writes a cynical MICHAEL MOORE. 

CALL me cynical! The quadrennial busy-bee of minor works. Strange thing, but about this time every four years I notice a sudden rush of activity in minor capital works. 

Even stranger – the timing precedes an ACT election by just a few months. Footpaths, potholes, school upgrades and improved traffic control are suddenly identified as urgent.

Is this expenditure of your taxpayers’ public money on electioneering? Are you grateful to the ACT (Labor/Greens) government?

How many footpaths suddenly have those tell-tale paint marks around broken or rising concrete? Repairs are on the way! Indeed, some have already been done! Near PM&C in Barton is a new section of about 10 metres or so. And the signage! “The ACT Government is building a new path here to improve connections and keep Canberrans working”. 

What’s missing? Perhaps it is “and to improve the ACT (Labor/Greens) government’s chances in the coming election”.

Roads, rates and rubbish! These have always been at the heart of winning an ACT election. The heavy rain, after so many years of drought, has exposed potholes all over Canberra’s usually pristine roads. Getting enough signs near every pothole… very challenging! “Your ACT (Labor/Greens) Government will be fixing this pothole soon”. Can’t be done!

Minister Chris Steel has the answer. There it is, on his Facebook. He was quick to reassure Canberra voters of the high priority: “Our road crews have been working long hours in the cold, repairing 80-120 potholes a day” and “over four tonnes of cold-mix asphalt and 38 tonnes of hot mix has been applied”.

Education institutions are in the mix. A very minor upgrade of the Ainslie North Primary School sports a large sign identifying how lucky we are as Canberrans. It must have been hard to contain themselves from extending the reference to the ACT Labor/Greens government! 

There is also the big news. Just released – the Canberra Institute of Technology is going to have a new campus in Woden. The University of NSW has been consulting with residents for months and months about its new campus in Reid. The consultation included an explanation that the CIT was moving to Woden. However, this does not stop an appropriately timed announcement.

Traffic control has joined the long list of capital works that the government is doing to win us over. Erecting cheap signs in the older suburbs may not actually be capital works. But they are designed to tell drivers that the ACT (Labor/Greens) government cares. The signs read: “Slow down. People are cycling and walking on the road”. Additionally, “Canberra Stronger Together” and “For updates visit transport.act.gov.au”  

Call me cynical – but lowering the speed limits to 50km/h in our suburbs a decade ago provided a clear reminder. Let me think! Was that just before an election, or was their concern that it may be construed as a negative? 

Signs in Yarralumla identify a roundabout that will be replaced and the intersection “signalised”. Not a common word. However, it does exist in my 1968 “Shorter Oxford Dictionary”. The message is clear. Your (Labor/Greens) government is doing everything it can to ensure smooth traffic flow. And, you need to know this before the election.

However, top of the list for what really concerns voters goes to (wait for it) signs for a new crematorium. Not sure when! However, there will be a new crematorium at Mitchell. A large sign tells us so! Thank you. Thank you so much ACT (Labor/Greens) government.

Michael Moore is a former member of the ACT Legislative Assembly and an independent minister for health. He has been a political columnist with “CityNews” since 2006.