Page 1016 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 26 July 1989
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Newspaper Article on Canberra
MR HUMPHRIES (5.39): I would like to draw the Assembly's attention to an article by Robert Haupt and Judith Whelan, called "Canberra: Where No one Walks and Status Talks", which appeared in the Age on 10 June. Members might have seen it either in the Age or in the Sydney Morning Herald under a different title.
I would like to draw it to the Assembly's attention for two reasons: firstly, it represents in part an indictment of the way this city has been administered over the past few decades and, secondly, the article takes a hefty swipe at life in Canberra and portrays Canberrans as status seeking bureaucrats, spoilt rotten - simply because we happen to reside in the national capital.
The article was obviously written for people who have never lived in Canberra, and attempts to portray life in Canberra as being vastly different and inferior to life in Sydney or Melbourne. The article is patronising and cynical, and takes cheap shots at this city and its people. For those who were fortunate enough to have missed the article I have selected a few paragraphs to give some idea of the nature of the piece.
On the symbolism of the new Parliament House, the authors wrote:
Many who work in the new building agree that it is symbolic of Canberra: an empty building at the centre of an empty city.
And, on the hospitality of Canberrans, they wrote:
As you tramp the empty footpaths you see people in the distance, clipping a hedge or washing a car. As you approach, they retreat towards their houses and by the time you pass they are as invisible as rabbits. One or two will stay put. They may even smile. They will be the newcomers. The rest re-emerge after you have passed.
On the purpose of Canberra:
There is a Parliament in which debate is at rock-bottom, a bureaucracy that cannot efficiently administer itself let alone the nation, and a city with every facility save spirit.
And, on the future of Canberra, they state:
It might be too late to shift the capital back to Melbourne and declare Canberra a theme park - a sort of "Yesterday's Tomorrowland"...but it is time for an urgent and radical reappraisal of this strange, cold, closed and cloistered city.
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