Democracy ACT-style
CANBERRA — ACT chief minister Kate Carnell announced her resignation on October 17, just before a no-confidence motion was to be debated by the ACT Legislative Assembly. Carnell's resignation prevented the possibility of an early election.
Carnell had been embroiled in a scandal over the mismanaged redevelopment of the Bruce Stadium in which millions of dollars of taxpayers' money were squandered.
Opinion polls show a majority of people prefer the holding of a new election to a new leader being appointed to head a minority Liberal government, backed by the right-wing independents Paul Osborne and Dave Rugendyke. Polls show that the ALP's Jon Stanhope is the preferred chief minister over both Carnell and her Liberal replacement, Gary Humphries.
Kumarangk Island bridge
ADELAIDE — The first stage of the controversial Kumarangk Island bridge was completed on October 10, when the two main spans were joined together. The bridge, first proposed by developers Tom and Wendy Chapman in 1989, was the subject of a decade-long struggle by the local Ngarrindjeri people and their supporters to preserve important cultural and sacred sites on the island from destruction.
There was no protest to mark the occasion, but Ngarrindjeri elder Tom Trevorrow told the Advertiser: "This is a very sad day for us. We do not see it as a bridge of progress, we see it as a bridge of destruction ... We have not given up the fight ... we have chosen not to go down there so we won't have ourselves as boxing bags for the police."