Political reporter BELINDA STRAHORN looks at what’s happening on the act election campaign and discovers… not much!

IS anyone really thinking elections this year? Besides candidates mulling around shopping centres freezing their backsides off and the odd poster here and there, there’s not much happening on the ground to indicate there’s an election looming. 

Perhaps coronavirus really is the major player this election campaign with most of our focus, understandably, turning to the virus, and hoping things don’t turn dire here. 

IT’S possible the major parties in this election know time is slipping away. The ACT government has hit the accelerator this week churning out media releases spruiking their achievements, like the two dozen new Neighbourhood Watch signs in Wright and Coombs, free music courses for public college students, new landfill gas generators to power households, the opening of a nurse-led walk in centre in Dickson and approving plans for a shiny, new $300 million Woden CIT campus that critics say won’t do anything to revitalise a sad Woden town centre. 

Oh, and a new tram stop in anticipation of light rail stage 2. You know there’s an election around the corner when the announcements start flowing.

THE Greens have splashed a wad of cash towards improving Canberra’s waterways, making a $33million election commitment this week for projects to restore the “poor condition” of the territory’s water ecosystems. 

The party also ramped up its campaign to ban clubs from donating to political parties. It’s believed the Barr government will bring forward debate in the Assembly on changes to the ACT’s electoral laws, in an effort to legislate the property-developer donation ban it promised ahead of the 2016 election. 

While the Greens support the developers ban, they want the legislation extended to ban donations from gambling entities, including clubs. The laws, if passed, could come into effect just weeks before the election. 

PAID parking on weekends could be a thing of the past, if the Belco Party has anything to do with it. The party has vowed to ditch paid parking on the weekend and on weekdays after 5.30pm, if elected in October. The party’s parking plan will see paid parking only in public car parks from 8.30am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday. It also proposes to reduce car and trailer rego fees helping Canberra to have the “nation’s lowest vehicle registration fees”. 

WHILE “Belco Bill” Stefaniak seems to lay claim to be the founding father of the Belco Party, a bit of digging reveals that the party was in fact the brainchild of two “rusted-on” Labor supporters, keen to keep a political focus on practical and grassroots issues this election. The dubbed “disrupter” party is emerging as an interesting party to watch, if anything it can claim to be the only party with a full ticket of colourful characters.

AS Liberal senator for the ACT Zed Seselja pointed out in his opinion piece in “CityNews”, the Canberra Liberals have fielded one of the most diverse pools of candidates seen for a while in an ACT election, with many of the party’s candidates born overseas. Labor’s line of candidates, in comparison, appear to be plucked mostly from the public service, the unions and are less culturally diverse.