Jon Stanhope News Today

The monumental Ouroboros sculpture by Lindy Lee will be unveiled soon, marking a cultural milestone for Canberra's art precinct.

The ACT is the only jurisdiction in which the proportion of hospital patients not admitted on time has increased in every category. JON STANHOPE & KHALID AHMED reveal why our public health service is the sickest in the nation.

Letter writer COLIN LYONS, of Fadden, says the neglect of the Transport Canberra information office in Alinga Street, Civic, is an example of "incompetent public transport management in Canberra by the government".

"It's difficult to justify the ACT's excess taxation when debt's rising, the hospital system is the country's poorest and services for disadvantaged groups are the nation's worst," write JON STANHOPE & KHALID AHMED.

"Depletion of cash, unbudgeted borrowings and an equity injection into a joint venture raise some tantalising questions that the government needs to answer." JON STANHOPE & KHALID AHMED look at another of the Budget Review's 'initiatives'.

"We are more informed and better educated today about... the harmful health impacts of smoke from wood heaters, despite what the wood-heating industry claims," says letter writer DARRYL JOHNSTON, of Tuggeranong.

"What's notable is a complete absence of a coherent and simple explanation of what has driven the government to add about $100 million a year in new expenditure." More forensic revelations of the ACT budget from JON STANHOPE & KHALID AHMED.

"There is not only no single instance of a surplus in the last 11 years under the nationally agreed budget measure, but the ACT deficits total a staggering $4.998 billion." JON STANHOPE & KHALID AHMED call out the chief minister.

"The ACT government’s budget forecasts are simply not credible – and, indeed, they have not been credible for almost a decade," write JON STANHOPE & KHALID AHMED. 

"The ACT government is oblivious of the need to maximise the benefits from limited infrastructure funds, as its cavalier expenditure on the light rail money-pit is a prime example," says letter writer MIKE QUIRK, of Garran.