Canberra Now: House prices rise; $280k travel bill 'money well spent'

Who's been enjoying the warm weather this week? The good news is there's more on the way.

We're in for a partly cloudy day and a top of 25 degrees today. I don't want to get anyone too excited, but the forecast into next week shows we may hit 30 degrees. It's practically summer already.

Make yourself a cuppa while you get up to speed with this morning's local headlines.

When Hugo Walker came out as gay, he quit his teaching job at a Canberra religious school because he didn’t want to create a division.

"I felt like it was the honourable thing to do, to resign from the school. If someone had outed me the school would have felt compelled to sack me. Some families from very conservative churches would have demanded I was sacked," Mr Walker said

Six years later, the ACT is a different place, with Chief Minister Andrew Barr confirming his government will change discrimination laws to prevent discrimination against students and teachers on the basis of sexuality, gender identity, race, pregnancy or intersex characteristics.

Katie Burgess has more details of the draft bill, which will be tabled next Thursday.

Home owners in Sydney and Melbourne might be feeling nervous thanks to all the talk of a downturn in their property markets. But it's a different story in Canberra.

Canberra has bucked the national trend with a 4 per cent rise in house prices in the past 12 months. Unit prices fell 4 per cent in the same period.

"Canberra home owners have reaped the benefits of six consecutive years of house growth, with September proving no different," Domain senior research analyst Nicola Powell said.

Lucy Bladen has more here.

Road rules to protect cyclists will become permanent in Canberra after a three-year trial, despite a study saying more testing is needed to prove they increase safety.

The ACT government has decided to keep minimum distances for motorists passing cyclists after a report found they may have reduced the number of crashes.

Road Safety Minister Shane Rattenbury will on Thursday announce the territory will adopt the road rules permanently despite the report failing to conclude they had increased safety.

The rules require motorists to stay one metre clear of cyclists when overtaking them in speed zones of 60km/h or less, and 1.5m in speed zones greater than 60km/h.

Read Doug Dingwall's story here.

The ACT's public housing taskforce underspent its planned budget by up to $120 million in 2017-18, after a series of delays accessing land, while developers will now demolish houses on three key blocks instead of the government.

The underspend includes $79 million worth of construction works and up to $41 million worth of demolitions the taskforce did not complete last fiscal year, partly due to delays accessing land at several community facility-zoned and greenfield sites.

The taskforce has also canned plans to demolish the buildings on existing public housing sites at Strathgordon Court in Lyons, Stuart Flats in Griffith and Gowrie Court in Narrabundah itself, instead making developers that buy the blocks clear the land.

Read Daniel Burdon's story here.

Since starting in the role in 2012, National Archives of Australia boss David Fricker has spent $280,724 on travel. But he insists it's "money well spent'.

Mr Fricker faced questioning at Senate estimates this week over his high travel bill, which includes 26 overseas trips.

"That's $280,000 well spent in my view," Mr Fricker told the committee.

Sally Whyte reports the most expensive trip was in April 2012, when Mr Fricker travelled to France, Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Including flights, accommodation and other costs, it came in at $28,241.

Olympic Games medal targets are out the window and Australian Olympic Committee boss Matt Carroll fears medals will be too unless the government pumps an extra $60 million into sport each year.

Carroll addressed the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, warning Australia is in danger of seeing that downward spiral continue if funds are not consistently pumped into Olympic sports.

"If investment continues to decline, then I have to say it will be very hard for us to win many medals at a Games. It’s just going to be tougher and tougher," he said.

Sport reporter Caden Helmers has more.