BIG SISTER TAKES FEDERAL CAPITAL UNDER HER WING

A BACKLASH is building against the most intrusive government in Australia,
the meddlesome crew which manages Canberra.

The Australian Capital Territory is run by a Legislative Assembly which
prides itself on being the national test tube for fanciful policy
experiments.

The ACT Government it led by a Liberal, Kate Carnell, but the assembly has
a mish-mash of Independents and minor party members who have little to do
except impose prejudices.

As the tide of government interference ebbs in other States and
territories, it is in full flood In Canberra.

There is no corner of life so private, no issue so petty that the ACT
Legislative Assembly believes it cannot set the rules.

Among its most recent moves to give Canberrans a better existence are bans
on leaflets being put under windshield wipers, and on home-made signs on
footpaths advertising garage sales.

The assembly also very much likes protecting taxpayers from themselves, not
just from people holding garage sales.

Certainly Canberra is the porn distribution capital of the nation and has
some of the softest laws on the cultivation and personal use of marijuana.

But there is a growing mood of wowserism in the assembly as its members
arrogantly tut-tut over the citizenry's inability to make appropriate
choices.

Next week a group will mount a protest against this, or what it calls
"Canberra's massive levels of anal retention".

The narrow issue is laws banning smoking in bars, clubs and restaurants
unless a small jet engine has been installed as an exhaust fan.

This was the last gasp for the group of university students worried their
local night spots will go broke as smokers stay away.

"What is going on in this city?" ask the organisers of the Reclaim the
Nightclub protest in a leaflet.

"Pretty soon the cops will be raiding your house for a packet of Wini Reds
while complimenting you on your fine collection of Swedish bestial porn
films and giving you tips on how to grow really good heads on your latest
dope crop."

No case can be made in favour of smoking, among the dumbest of habits, but
the ACT assembly barely bothers with the inconvenient facts that cigarettes
are legal and that restaurants and bars are private enterprises.

A particular target of the university group is Michael Moore, the
Independent made Health Minister by Chief Minister Carnell.

Mr Moore, who was behind the doomed ACT bid to start an experiment in
prescription heroine (KR-sic), is an energetic dictator of public taste and
private behaviour.

As the student group sums up in undergraduate manner. "Where does someone
with a beard as bad as that get off telling us what we can and can't do
anyway?"

It's not just Mr Moore who likes telling the people of Canberra what to do.

The assembly last week passed extraordinary laws requiring women wanting
abortions to first read government-sanctioned literature and view pletures
of embryos.

The legislation, provoked by footballer and independent Paul Osborne, does
not change the legal status of abortion procedures but subjects women to
what amounts to a stern moral and medical lecture.

Beyond the basic issue of abortion on demand there is the question of why
the ACT Legislative Assembly, essentially a jumped-up municipal council,
should have the power to rule on such a sensitive matter.

There is no justification beyond the argument that it does because it can.

And this is reinforced by the bulk belief of Assembly members that citizens
cannot be trusted to make their own decisions.

They have to find something to do apart from responding to falling property
values by increasing rates. But the assembly is so pleased with its work
that, despite a declining Canberra population, there is agreement to
increase its size from 17 to 21 members.