Libs lead Labor’s Tara Cheyne a merry dance on coupons, driving and texting is gone forever, so (almost) are those unloveable myna birds. Here’s another “Seven Days” with IAN MEIKLE.

MY head spins when it comes to the wildly successful faltering triumph that is the haplessly popular, rort-riven, coupon-driven ChooseCBR scheme. 

Never mind the clambering couponeers, jamming up the web offer, then once fixed, emptying the $2 million of digital discounts in less than 24 hours. 

Perspective here: this is the government scattering a desultory $2 million of our money in some belief it will suddenly rejuvenate the ACT retail and hospitality sector via subsidised discounts of up to 50 per cent for use at participating Canberra businesses. Will it help? Certainly, some of the punters were really helping themselves, if the Libs are to be believed. 

“Small businesses and their customers have been left frustrated and disappointed after allocated funds for the ChooseCBR scheme were exhausted just 24 hours after it was relaunched,” bemoaned Liberal small business spokesperson (and country music siren) Leanne Castley, the same pollie howling with indignation when the latest iteration of the ChooseCBR scheme initially faltered.

It’s hard to know how Business Minister Tara “Sorry” Cheyne can win; she’s berated when it fails and castigated when it works (too well). 

So, is there something in the Libs’ allusion to dark monitoring of pre-dawn digital raids on the coupon cornucopia? Of “en masse” rorting between midnight and 6am on two days?

Surprisingly, the minister conceded the coupon claims were being made at what would otherwise seem to be “unusual hours” and to the rookie error that it “may be possible” to register more than one email and one mobile phone under the scheme, which could indicate some individuals were filling their boots with offers of up to 50 per cent off items.

Invited in question time to rule out any knowledge of suggestions over a misappropriation of funds, the minister was less convincing saying an “independent” review will look into any wrongdoing in the scheme “by the last sitting day” of the Assembly this year. Nothing to see here?

But Yerrabi’s Rodeo Queen isn’t for bucking: “It’s a real kick in the guts for small businesses who put in upwards of 15 hours’ work to be eligible for each of the iterations of ChooseCBR, only to receive $20 or $50 in total benefit.” 

THE reviled Indian myna birds have been declared a prohibited pest in the ACT under the Pest Plants and Animals Act 2005. 

Hooray, says Bill Handke, president of the 2260-strong Canberra Indian Myna Action Group Inc, who have used backyard traps to catch and “remove” 74,900 mynas since 2006, taking them from the third most common bird in Canberra to the 24th. 

“The environmental impact is huge – many small bird numbers declined noticeably in Canberra as myna numbers expanded across our suburbs since they were introduced into this area in the 1960s,” he says.

“We look forward to myna control activities now getting a real boost with work on public lands and around businesses, to complement the backyard trapping by dedicated CIMAG members.”

NO more dashing off a quick text while sitting at a red light. Those Assembly rotters have passed legislation to ensure we get more intrusive cameras next year, these ones capable of peering into the cabin to detect illegal use of a mobile phone. 

The phone-detection cameras, set to roll out early next year, are certainly needed given the footage ACT police released in June last year showing motorists dangerously unable to resist the lure of their mobiles. 

There’s no fighting it, just make sure you are wearing pants at all times.

BE careful what you wish for, Gungahlin. As locals lobby to be next on the e-scooter roll out, the French are fighting back. After a 23 per cent increase in electric scooter accidents in Paris last year, with 284 people injured and five killed, it’s just been announced that e-scooters will be banned from pavements, even if they will still fill the roads.

EDUCATION Minister Yvette Berry’s media release started: “Gold Creek School’s expansion has kicked off with a smoking ceremony… “

When I was at high school, smoking ceremonies were behind the bike shed, but this one was “to cleanse the site for the school’s new senior student learning area, which will be ready for the start of Term 1, 2022”.

I’VE seen Curtin spelt “Curtain”; in a rush, I recently misspelt “reign” for rein, but “Cottor Road” from the ESA Media was a super new blooper for the collection. Not a slip of the fingers, either. It was wrong four times in the media alert, including in the terribly official looking situation logo they’ve adopted over recent months. 

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