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University of Queensland the Fryer Iviemorial Library Of 3 4067 031 98 3827 University of Queensland Presented to The Fryer iVIemorial Library of Australian Literature by University of Queensland Press THE GOVERNMENT OF THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY This title is published in a series on the Governments of the Australian States and Territories under the general editorship of Colin A. Hughes, Professorial Fellow in Political Science at the Australian National University in Canberra. Previous titles The Government of Tasmania W.A. Townsley The Government of Victoria Jean Holmes The Government of South Australia Dean Jaensch Forthcoming titles The Government of New South Wales R.S. Parker The Government of the Northern Territory Alistair Heatley The Government of Queensland Colin A. Hughes THE GOVERNMENT OF THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY Ruth Atkins Uriversityof Queensland Press /^"^ © University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Queensland, 1978 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publishers. Typeset, printed and bound by Academy Press Pty. Ltd., Brisbane Distributed in the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Caribbean by Prentice-Hall International, International Book Distributors Ltd, 66 Wood Lane End, Hemel Hempstead, Herts., England National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-publication data Atkins, Ruth. The government of the Australian Capital Territory. (Governments of the Australian states and territories). Index. ISBN 0 7022 1424 8. ISBN 0 7022 1430 2 Paperback. 1. Australian Capital Territory—Politics and government. I. Title (Series). 354. I'^Tr Contents Tables, vi Maps, vi Preface, vii 1. Gate of Glory. 1 2. Founding a Capital. 17 3. The Long Haul. 43 4. Grace Abounding. 57 5. Vanity Fair. 68 6. The Hiir Called Lucre. 104 7. The Key Called Promise. 119 8. Which Road to Salvation? 134 Appendix 1. Proposed Constitutional Development of the A.C.T. 158 Appendix 2. The Australian Capital Territory: A Brief Chronology. 182 Bibliography. 192 Index. 201 Tables 1. Australian Capital Territory: present and future land uses. 22 2. The Y plan for an expanded Canberra, 1968. 73 Maps 1. Education statistics. 94 2. Current and projected school needs. 94 3. Deficits in municipal services, water supply, and sewerage accounts. 107 4. Distribution of municipal expenditures. 107 5. Canberra costs and N.S.W. comparisons. 108 6. Assembly election results. 142 Preface I owe so much to so many people for information, comment, advice, aiid other help that I cannot name them all. To these, certainly I owe very special thanks: Ray Archer, Frank Brennan, Jim Costello, Lou Engledow, Richard Gray, Dick Kingsland, Peter Harrison, Bob Lansdown, Jim Leedman, Don Nairn, Sir John Overall, Jim Pead, Tony Powell, Gordon Walsh, and the late Jim Fraser; Nancy Anderson, Thomas Brereton, Richard Clough, Fin Crisp, Joyce Harrison, Colin Hughes, Lucy Rees, Don Rowat, Robin Ryan, Hugh Stretton, and the late Gavin Long. Of course, none of these is responsible for what I have written. Many departments and agencies have generously provided information, especially the National Capital Development Commission, the Department of the Capital Territory and its predecessor the Department of the Interior, the A.C.T. Legisla­ tive Assembly and its predecessor the A.C.T. Advisory Council, the A.C.T. Electricity Authority, the A.C.T. Police and the parliamentary Joint Committee on the A.C.T. Of course none of these has any responsibility for my use of material from reports and other documents. Having called on John Bunyan to enliven the story, I now use Samuel Johnson to help me excuse its errors and omissions. Like Johnson with a far greater enterprise (his Dictionary), I can say that "When I first engaged in this work, I resolved to leave neither words nor things unexamined", but that, having discovered this to be impossible, I realized that "Whatever abilities I had brought to my task, with these I must finally perform it. To deliberate where I doubted, to enquire whenever I was ignorant, would have protracted the undertaking without Preface end, and perhaps without much improvement ... I saw that one enquiry only gave occasion to another, that book referred to book, that to search was not alw ays to find, and to find was not always to be informed; and that thus to pursue perfection was, hke the first inhabitants of Arcadia, to chase the sun, which, when they reached the hill where it seemed to rest, was still some distance from them." If there are still faults not smoothed over by that apologia, I will borrow again and put them down to "Ignorance . puré ignorance.'\ Ruth Atkins September 1977 1 Gate of Glory This book it chalketh out before thine eyes The man that seeks the everlasting prize; It shows you whence he comes, whither he goes. What he leaves undone, also what he does: It also shows you how he runs, and runs. Till he unto the Gate of Glory comes. Canberra is Australia's national capital, a city especially created in its own capital territory to provide a symbolic centre for the Australian federal Commonwealth inaugurated in 1901, and the headquarters of federal parliament and government. Intentions were grand, but their fulfilment took a long time. Parliament was officially opened in Canberra in 1927, but thirty years later this was still a small scattered township of about 40,000 people, variously described as a bush capital, a good sheep run spoiled, or five suburbs in search of a city. The last twenty years have seen a transformation, a five-fold increase of population to about 200,000, and such varied development that a recent book announced in its introduction that "Canberra is a sophisticated cosmopolitan city and one of the world's most beautiful capitals."' Allowing for criticisms and regrets about detail, and recognizing the difficulty of making judgments on "beauty", this assessment would now have many supporters. The idea of a national capital city has developed over a long period, especially with the rise of nation-states. The creation of a specially planned capital has sometimes represented the power of an autocratic monarch, but in several well-known cases it has been linked with the formation of a federal union. The wish that no one member-state would dominate the federal headquarters, or gain special prestige or influence from the 2 Gate of Glory presence of the national government, was the main reason behind the establishment of the United States capital, Washing­ ton, and the same arguments were adopted in Australia. A new capital like Brasilia, however, represents, among other things, a change in federal policy towards decentralization rather than a new federal system. Transfer of the capital from Leningrad, the old St Petersburg, to Moscow in 1924 symbolized the new Soviet Union's turning away from Western Europe and from the reminders of the old Russian monarchy.^ For many old and famous cities, such as Paris or Rome, London, or Stockholm, the removal of capital status would necessarily symbolize some upheaval in the country's fortunes, but need not mean the end of that city's importance. Capital cities are as varied as the countries to which they belong and the locations where they are established. But some common features are discoverable; whether small or large, new or old, a national capital is usually the seat of national government, the headquarters of national administration, and the centre for diplomatic missions to that country. With a new capital, once those basic functions are provided for, we can generally watch a magnetic influence at work:'' the head­ quarters of government attracts other headquarters' organiza­ tions seeking information or influence, the diplomatic corps adds social and cultural diversity, the symbolic aspect of the capital is often used to justify the establishment of national cultural and educational centres and a variety of other head- office institutions. With an old capital, leadership in social, cultural, and economic affairs may have been acquired even before the city was formally recognized as a capital; some of that leadership might survive the transfer of formal capital status. In Canberra we find that the name of capital precedes by decades the actuality of this town being the effective seat of government and the centre for diplomatic representation. We might interpret Canberra's slow and uncertain growth as indicating that the nationalism symbolized was not very strong and its demands not very urgent. Until the Second World War Australia relied largely on Britain for foreign diplomatic connections. The first foreign embassy in Austrafia, that of the United States, was not established in Canberra until 1940. From 3 Gate of Glory about 1942 onwards every year brought some new diplomatic mission until the Australian capital had almost as wide a range of foreign representation as would be found in London or Washington, Paris or Moscow." This added to the city's variety in architecture and in people, while at the same time it demonstrated recognition of Australia as an independent nation and of Canberra as its capital city. Capital cities may have some functions in common, but they do not share any common form of government. Some years ago a French student of constitutional affairs examined forty different capitals and their systems of government. Dr. Dreyfus concluded that the history of any capital city
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