“Seven Days” columnist IAN MEIKLE has learnt a new word. It helps that it’s Irish…

IS this unkind? I’ve come across a new word (to me, anyway) that I can’t help but keep mentally applying to the things Mick Gentleman’s been doing this past week. 

I started when the Planning Minister mysteriously used his unappealable “call in” powers to a development at the McKellar shops precinct. 

The minister typically calls in projects to silence protest and allow the developer to get on with whatever abomination they want. 

But, no; this time caring-sharing Mick’s concerned that the proposed development would “change the character” of the precinct because local shops are the “heart and soul” of their suburbs. 

New word alert: I think Mick was “foostering” around. That’s the one I spotted in a column from a Celtic correspondent who was filing some copy with me. It sent me straight to the dictionary: it’s an Irish word that means to fiddle around or fuss with something. It’s a kind of agitated activity: busy but commonly aimless or inefficient. I read that one can fooster with or over something, fooster around or about, or just fooster.

In foostering, Mick was unstoppable. With his Worksafe minister’s hat on, he also complained to Worksafe of COVID-19 protocols not being followed in the Assembly building. Worksafe obliged him and effectively slapped an order on the workings of our parliament, prohibiting meetings and hearings. 

And – oh, the disappointment – all this on the eve of the Estimates Hearings when the Chief Minister was to front up, face-to-face and explain the vagaries of his foosterful Budget to the opposition. What timing, Mick, what masterful foostering! 

However, Assembly Speaker Joy Burch was not foostering about when she threatened legal action in the Supreme Court to lift the ban. 

FROM the UK Linda Burns (née Burgess) is trying to find a chum she went to school with in the UK who emigrated to Canberra.

“I have been trying to find a girl I went to Clarendon House school in Ramsgate, Kent with in the ’60s,” Linda writes of Ann Houghton, who changed her surname to Martin when her mother remarried. 

“We both left school in 1963 and she emigrated to Canberra with her mother in 1964. I believe her mother had a brother in Canberra, and they were moving near him.

“Ann will be 74 now, and I believe she is still in Oz as a few years after emigrating, her engagement was in the Ramsgate local paper. 

“Please, please help me to find her, I would love to hear from her again.” Linda’s at lindaburns544@btinternet.com

WAS ist das? The people at the Spielwelt German Parents Association in Turner, who run a not-for-profit bilingual playschool called GAP can’t find a head teacher. 

They say it’s one of the best playschools in Canberra and seeks to instil a love of the German language, culture and heritage in children 3-5 years of age through play, song and activities.

They’ve posted an advertisement on Seek, but with no success. Because? “Primarily because we are looking for a candidate who is able to speak fluent German, which isn’t easy to find!” they say. 

Prove them wrong and schreiben to gap.director@spielwelt.org.au or call 0481 590656.

VISITOR James Sinnamon wrote to say he got two $300 speeding fines from a recent four-night stay in Canberra in late July. 

“When I was there, I tried very hard to observe the vast number of quick variations in speed limits that I encountered, but evidently I was not careful enough,” he writes. Sounds like he was in the still bewildering 40km/h zone on Northbourne Avenue. 

“I consider these fines to be no better than theft. Those government ministers and bureaucrats who are administering this are no more than thieves and should be reported to Crime Stoppers,” he’ll doubtlessly be telling his friends about his holiday here. 

READER Gil Miller, of Barton, wrote reminding us that it was but a few weeks ago that the ACT government was spruiking the fact that we were the only jurisdiction in Australia to be lowering its energy prices.

“And yet, ActewAGL is asking me to increase my monthly payments from $203 to $244 a month. I can’t believe it!,” he says.

“These payments are regular ones that I’ve been making every month since 2016 and there is no indication that a price hike is required. I wonder what criteria they used for their ‘recent review’?”

Ian Meikle is the editor of “CityNews” and can be heard with Rod Henshaw on the “CityNews Sunday Roast” news and interview program, 2CC, 9am-noon.