BILL Stefianiak, the former Canberra Liberals leader, has formed a new party to stand up for Belconnen next ACT election. DANIELLE NOHRA finds out why he thinks he's in with a chance. And MICHAEL MOORE has a message for those in quarantine, suck it up!
CANBERRA has saved nothing for a rainy day. The economic hailstorm bearing down on the seven years of debt amassed by the profligate Barr government and its bloated public service can mean only more debt. Before the blame-it-on-coronavirus excuses start, JON STANHOPE exposes the $3 billion budget black hole.
NO one is unscathed by current events. So far for "CityNews" we've had to park our social photographer and, in the absence of cinemas, no reviews from Dougal Macdonald. We're striving for a coronavirus coverage that transcends the usual doom and gloom. See what you think.
OUR world is upside down from the threat of coronavirus. This week we cut through the noise and sharply focus on news and views from trusted writers such as MICHAEL MOORE, MICHELLE GRATTAN and DANIELLE NOHRA.
AS a community, can we let Palliative Care ACT’s therapeutic Life Stories program fail for the lack of funding? The modest program, which helps people who are at the end of their lives tell their stories, runs out of cash at month's end. There must be a sponsor or two out there.
"LABOR was on the front foot commencing the ACT election year. And then it went belly up. After nearly two decades in power they only have themselves to blame." That's MICHAEL MOORE with an instructive column about how the Barr's team is faltering.
"I was stunned... the audited statements showed the ACT’s superannuation liability was $11.776 billion or 51 per cent higher than the amount reported in the 2018-19 Budget". JON STANHOPE at his brilliant best. Page 8.
NICHOLE OVERALL'S fabulous "Yesterday's" column tracks the strange goings on in Queanbeyan that April night in 1896 when 21-year-old maid Kate Donnelly went missing from the railway station.
"MUCH to the growing dismay of ratepayers, the City Renewal Authority continues to burn millions on pop-ups and other distractions in Civic, Braddon and more recently Dickson," despairs "Canberra Matters" columnist PAUL COSTIGAN.
LOCAL MLA Deepk-Raj Gupta set out to find the grave of Walter Burley Griffin in Lucknow. The American who designed Canberra died in India in 1937. The grave took some finding, it was unkempt and neglected. But not now.
"SURELY, it's time to consider whether or not Australia would be better served by extrapolating from the reservists’ model and applying it to our Rural Fire Service." An interesting idea from political columnist MICHAEL MOORE.
"THOSE in Canberra who don’t have a voice or, it seems, a champion have been abandoned by the Labor Party, ignored by the unions and are invisible to the Greens." JON STANHOPE points the finger at a government that he says should terrify you.
DANIELLE NOHRA reports on an ugly and intimidating side of our community where people with disabled parking permits are shamefully abused for looking 'normal'.
WHO doesn't love a good horoscope? We reckon the one we run each year (and weekly) by astrologer JOANNE MADELINE MOORE is always worth a peep. Happy New Year? Find out of Pages 22-23.
ARTIST Annette Boyd lives her life in knots. She teaches macrame, which appears to be enjoying a resurgence. “The simple act of knot tying calms you, it grounds you, it makes you forget everything," she says.
SHANNON Mortlock is struggling to feed drought victims – the unwanted animals she has taken in to her not-for-profit sanctuary at Williamsdale. The pastures are bare and every spare cent she earns goes to buying feed, but she can't keep going without help. Page 3 has the story.
IF I was the Corrections Minister, I would sack every single one of the senior officers who thought it appropriate and reasonable to leave me swinging, in blissful ignorance, in the breeze." Former Chief Minister JON STANHOPE has some advice for Shane Rattenbury.
AFTER a spate of burglaries left the community of Florey unsettled last year, one brave local decided to write 100 letters to 100 residents in a bid to restore the northern suburb's community spirit. This lovely story's on Page 5.
FRUSTRATED by the silence from Canberra’s police, Liz Mikita, the daughter of Irma Palasics, a woman murdered in McKellar 20 years ago, is now calling on Police Minister Mick Gentleman to intervene. But will he?
ROBERT MACKLIN has discovered a former Australian Army officer discreetly serving time among segregated pedophiles in the ACT prison. He was tried in secret, the Federal government changed his name and erased his identity. How could this happen in Australia?
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Artsday / Artists defeat isolation
Arts editor HELEN MUSA shares another day in the arts in Canberra.
