“Canberra Matters” columnist PAUL COSTIGAN  says Andrew Barr has shown real leadership through the covid crisis and wonders if he can take this new-found wisdom to other parts of the government. 

WATCHING ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr get it right on his announcements during this never-ending pandemic, you appreciate how important leadership is to the 460,000 people living in Canberra. 

The Chief Minister is taking advice and is using it to good effect. That advice comes from chief health officer Dr Kerryn Coleman and her team. 

A big thank you to her for the amazingly difficult job she is doing. Please hang in there – we need to hear from you as this stuff rolls on being more difficult. And it is not going to be over any time soon.

As for Andrew Barr, he has been impressive. Making the decision to lockdown so quickly at 5pm, on Thursday, August 12, cannot have been easy – but was accepted as being absolutely necessary.

Anyone who reads my opinion pieces would know that Mr Barr has not received many compliments from me over the years. But the issues being highlighted were mainly about planning and development. This covid stuff has an immediate effect on our lives and health.

I really do appreciate that the chief health officer’s advice is guiding the Chief Minister’s decisions. This stands in strong contrast to the federal electioneering games by the Prime Minister as he dangerously manipulates advice to get himself a positive profile in case he decides to call the election any time soon. 

Meanwhile Andrew Barr, has not fallen for these games and has maintained his cool. Canberrans feel as though someone sensible is running the show in the ACT. 

Hard evidence, expert opinions, science and intelligence are being valued by the Chief Minister in how he is leading the territory through this crisis.

Let me now join some dots. In the planning and development portfolios over which he remains in control, despite the pretence of others holding these ministerial positions, hard evidence, expert opinions, science and intelligence have not brought about wisdom in how decisions are made on urban and environmental issues.

Is there someone out there that can have a quiet word with Mr Barr about changing the way his Labor/Greens coalition does planning and development? This is not necessarily about the issues of land sales, but what happens next.

What would it take for the Chief Minister to be converted to the thinking that this city in a landscape is a wonderful place to live. Surely, the lessons learnt from his decision making during the crisis have alerted him that there may be a better way of doing things in other portfolios. He needs to understand that many of the things that make the city so wonderful are in fact the things his crew are now undoing. 

To be more exact, the Chief Minister has a history of taking advice from narrow-minded bureaucracies and lobbyists that, in turn, is enabling others to trash the place. 

There is very little that comes out of the City Renewal Authority of the ACT Planning Directorate that indicates that it makes much use of hard evidence, expert opinions, science and intelligence – let alone aesthetics and a love of the planet.

I repeat, Andrew Barr has done well for the city during this pandemic. I thank him – and his chief health officer.

However, many people would be very happy if the Chief Minister was to learn from his management of this crisis and apply some sense to other areas. 

This request is not more of the rubbish talk fests and consultations as is the norm for his planning agencies. This is a request for Andrew Barr to transfer the wisdom from his covid leadership and to make it real!