Canberra, as I've often stated, is an amazing place. I think it was Senator John Button who called it a lawn cemetery, and certainly Canberra is neat and tidy enough to be compared to one. Litter is rare, parks plentiful, the whole city is organised to a degree not found elsewhere, and council ordinances enforced by an army of bureaucrats.
This is due to Canberra being the planned national capital. For decades the National Capital Development Commission was the ultimate authority on how the city should be laid out, and all decisions went through them. From the siting of the National Library to the numbering and naming of the tiniest cul-de-sac in the newest suburb, the all-powerful NCDC had a finger in every planning pie.
With self-government in 1988 came a division of authority between the new ACT Legislative Assembly and the Commonwealth. Houses, suburbs, factories and churches were taken over by the new polity and the Commonwealth kept control over national areas, mainly the Parliamentary Triangle running from Capital Hill to City Hill to Russell and containing Parliament House, the High Court, the Defence Force HQ and establishments of that ilk.
Most of the Triangle is lawn, parkland and lake. A pleasant, well-planned vista, where private enterprise is scarce, monumental public buildings plentiful and tourists float about admiring the effect of generations of tax-dollars well spent and taking photos of each other in front of one postcard scene after another.
Old Parliament House sits in the middle of all this, a large white wedding cake placed between Federation Mall and the National Rose Garden.
And smack in front of Old Parliament House is the eyesore of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. I counted fourteen tents and half a dozen humpies, but the main structures are two temporary steel buildings resembling nothing so much as rusty, graffiti-covered shipping containers.
A bunch of scraggly gum saplings have been planted beside one container, and a permanent campfire burns nearby, laid directly on the lawn and kept burning "for warmth" during total fire bans.
Signs and placards are scattered about, and rubbish may be found in abundance. Vehicles are parked on the lawns, washing flaps in the breeze, outdoor furniture sprawls in gay abandon. A single portable toilet lurks beneath a tree and a letterbox leans at a drunken angle beside the road.
Judging by the smell under the trees near the tents, the residents aren't keen on walking over to the portaloo. The entire establishment would be closed down by even the most remote shire council as an affront to town planning and a danger to public health, yet here in the very heart of the national capital, it has been allowed to continue for seven years. This eyesore demonstrates, far more vividly than words alone can tell, that there is one law for Aboriginal Australians and another for the rest of us.
A spokesperson for the National Capital Authority, the body controlling the Parliamentary Triangle recently told me that several restrictions apply to events held there.
No permanent structures may be erected. Permission must be obtained for tents, marquees and other temporary erections. The area must be kept clean and tidy. No open fires laid on the lawns are permitted. Definitely no overnight stays are allowed. Existing gardens and vegetation must not be damaged. No new plantings are allowed.
The longstanding flouting of these common-sense rules by the expanding Aboriginal Embassy is apparent to all.
Last week's protesting copper miners have returned to Cobar, leaving no trace of their passing. Doubtless other groups will come and go, but the protests will be peaceful and orderly and the lawns of Parliament House will remain green and unspoilt.
Yet down the hill, the Aboriginal Embassy is a permanent scar on an otherwise tidy landscape. Nobody disputes for a moment the right of Aboriginal Australians or any other group to make a peaceful protest over issues important to them.
But there must be a limit. There must be the same rules for all Australians, regardless of race. There must be an end to such obvious political stunts as the lodging of a native title claim over Parliament House and the High Court. There must be equal rights for all, not extra rights for some.