While Canberra is often derided as "the bubble" by populists and conservatives its unique demographic as Australia's best educated and most wealthy jurisdiction has seen it become a social laboratory in which so-called "radical" ideas can be tested in real time with real people.
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Polling conducted by the Australia Institute ahead of this year's ACT election found many once radical policies implemented in the territory have now achieved mainstream support elsewhere. The purpose of the polling, which followed up on ideas the institute identified as "ambitious" and "progressive", was to prompt candidates and parties to think outside the box.
That is very timely given that, to this point, the political debate has been dominated by light rail, the length of time the ALP has been in power, infrastructure spending, policing and the usual "roads and bridges" mantra. Lawn mowing has been given a lot of air time as have bike paths and other "local government" issues.
Yes, all of these are worthy but where is "the vision thing"?
While, as one would expect, the left-leaning Australia Institute marks the Barr-Rattenbury government highly on outcomes that are, to put it mildly, often hotly contested, the polling results do tell a story.
One example is the 100 per cent renewable energy target which, according to the institute, saw the ACT become the first jurisdiction outside Europe to transition from fossil fuel to using 100 per cent renewable energy.
The reality is that much of the electricity that powers the ACT is actually generated by fossil fuels. But for every watt of "dirty" energy Canberra draws from the grid, it pays to feed the same amount of "clean" energy back into the system.
The institute's polling found 71 per cent of respondents across the country support 100 per cent renewables. The ACT is also committed to net zero by 2045, five years ahead of the national target.
The ACT's decision to adopt a harm reduction approach to personal drug use with pill testing at music festivals and at the CanTEST centre since 2022, and the decriminalisation of small quantities of illicit drugs, is also gaining traction elsewhere.
Queensland has already said it will introduce pill testing and both NSW and Victoria are investigating it. Almost two thirds of the poll respondents are in favour of testing at music festivals.
Support for decriminalising marijuana is also on the rise. According to the poll 52 per cent of respondents are supportive. Another 36 per cent are opposed.
Canberra's long established "salt and pepper" approach to public housing in existing suburbs and new developments (rather than concentrating it in one area) is also well supported with 72 per cent of respondents in favour.
That said, the ACT government's track record on delivering public and social housing is far from stellar. There are actually fewer of these homes in the ACT now than there were a decade ago.
The institute's thumbs up for the transition from a one-off stamp duty payment to a recurrent land tax is also problematic. It's claim that people "pay a small amount each year instead of a large amount at the point of purchase" begs the question of what constitutes "a small amount".
Putting the institute's predictable paeans of praise for Labor aside for a moment, the study does make a very good point. That is that Canberrans are ahead of the curve on many issues and are quite open to ambitious and progressive ideas.
They deserve much more creative thinking from our politicians than this campaign has delivered to date.
