“We have public finances that are debt ridden, weighed down by devouring interest beetles, so that once sound limbs (such as education, health, public housing, access to justice) are in danger of dieback.,” but columnist HUGH SELBY has an idea.

The blossom around Canberra in September is such a delight.

The colours, the movement, the tree landscapes, these brighten our streets, give our homes and gardens a lift, and prompt thoughts of new awakening and renewal.

It was while looking this week at a magnificent display of white blossom on a large Manchurian pear that I was reminded of the symbol of once-upon-a-time Sydney retailer Anthony Hordern and Sons, the “while I live I grow” tree that was on the razor back out of Sydney, on the old Hume Highway.

We’d pass it each year when we went on holidays, hoping that the radiator and its pipework would not burst on the way up the hill.

That tree was not a Manchurian pear, but it had a beautiful shape until it was vandalised.

A dictionary definition of “vandalised” is “someone has intentionally damaged, defaced, or destroyed property belonging to someone else”.

Let’s broaden the meaning to encompass the intentional destruction of sound budget financial management. In its place we have public finances that are debt ridden, weighed down by devouring interest beetles, so that once sound limbs (such as education, health, public housing, access to justice) are in danger of dieback. 

That, as we know, is the current parlous state of ACT public finances. It has been set out in article after article in CityNews by Jon Stanhope and Khalid Ahmed.

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There has been nothing from Megadebtor Barr and his team of superheroes to rebut the content of those articles.

But ACT Treasury assures us of, “a robust governance framework with clear accountabilities, transparent decision-making and appropriate financial delegations”. 

Something must be done, but what? 

The ACT raises money from duties (such as stamp duty), charges (such as car registration, filing and search fees, parking meters, traffic infringements, public transport fares, fines) and taxes (such as our annual rates payments). 

That’s not anywhere near enough to pay the bills so, like all the other states and the NT, we borrow, but we do it our way.

The rest of the country issues semi-government bonds to distinguish them from the bonds issued by the Australian Government.

The ACT approach is short-term note programs, private placements, and direct institutional borrowing.

Investors are picky. They assess risk. The “safer” the borrower the lower the interest that is paid to the investor. Ratings agency S&P gives Western Australia its highest rating of AAA. 

Here in the ACT our S&P rating was AAA until 2023. Then it went down to AA+. Then in September 2025 it went down again to AA. A reason for this downgrading was that actual performance of our economy did not measure up to the forecasts. So now we pay more to borrow.

This reflects that while it was cars that ate Paris it is shiny, caterpillar-like trams that are eating Canberra. If you don’t believe me, have a wander around Civic.

Where once there was a vibrant hub now there are shells beside the hoardings.

My hunch is that the S&P people read the Stanhope-Ahmed articles and said: “Oh dear, the ACT is a basket case, but if the bottom falls out the national government will bail them out in some fashion.” 

Acknowledging that we live in an age of, “I’m a victim, too. I have rights that you must pay for” there’s still merit in the adage, “Heaven helps those who help themselves”.

And the way to do that is to stop whinging about gambling and embracing it totally.

It was explained to me this way. Nobody wants to trim the fat from their lives. An example is that our Megadebtor doesn’t want to save our money by cancelling his overseas travel.

What’s needed then is a way to vacuum up every last cent of available savings from our community and other parts of the country without an interest bill.

The classic way to do that is with a lottery. Did you know that Casanova, a better than average mathematician, was a key figure in establishing a French lottery centuries back? 

The key to lotteries is that even after any payout to punters it’s the government that gets most of the takings. 

There’s no better way to fund government than happy punters bedazzled at the thought of a windfall. 

The problem is that this country is awash with lotteries and betting systems.

A new product is the key, something that matches the success of the yesteryear Commonwealth Bank savings program that reached into every school across this wide, brown land with a green, bank-shaped tin into which we put our left-over pocket money.

No one is suggesting that we go back to those days of thrift and saving for a rainy day. God forbid. Now the adage is: “Spend today and hope for an unearned windfall tomorrow”.

Our kids need to be motivated to learn and their parents and grandparents need to want to pay weekly for that motivation. We can achieve both with an ACT managed national, weekly, competition in which there are topical unanswered questions with a “pick-a-box” choice of answers – like betting on the races.

The questions will range across cause celebres and scandals, sporting results, economic issues, politics, pop music, trending social media, a nod to science, another nod to agriculture, and so on.

This will be so much bigger than the Tamagotchi craze of the late 1990s, or any yo-yo revival.

The kids will be glued to their phones, using AI to search for answers, and working out the odds. They will learn life lessons.

The rewards will be “status” and rankings for the schools that have winners. Those winners will receive something valuable to them, but at a fraction of the cost of a lottery payout to adult gamblers.

The big winner will be ACT Treasury.

We, the inhabitants of a bankrupt city will see its renewal.

Megadebtor will become Megawinner.

We can be the clever country, living and growing, and here in the home of Floriade and blossom-lined streets we can be AAA debt free.

Hugh Selby is a regular CityNews columnist.

News all day, every day at CityNewsQBN.com.au.