"Canberra has been called a lot of things, but until yesterday, no-one had thought to describe it as a scruffy, socialist place with the look of the Third World."
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That was the opening line from political journo Tony Wright's report on Nationals backbencher Michael Cobb's withering assessment of the state of the capital, particularly its long grass in public areas.
He said these were symptomatic of Labor chief minister Rosemary Follett and her Urban Services minister Elinor Grassby's "obsession" with socialist ideology, which he said was stopping her from hiring private lawnmowers.
"Canberra in many ways is getting a Third World look about it, and all she [Mrs Grassby] can do is blame the rain," Mr Cobb said.
In a somewhat eccentric warning to Canberra, he said there was an obvious difference between capitalist and socialist cities...you only had to compare the neat and tidy cities of Japan with the capitals of Mozambique and Ethiopia.
Also on front on this day 30 years ago was a picture of a nude protester being arrested after he and other members of the 'Penises for Peace' group tried to disrupt a defence industries expo using a kind of Trojan horse.
"Using a giant model fist holding a SAFE sign and mounted on rollers, the group of about 30 charged the National Exhibition Centre's main gate. Fix this textThey intended to break through the gate and then release the naked men, who were concealed inside the fist. But the police foiled their plan by diverting the fist from the gate and overturning it, trapping the naked men inside."
