2025 – that was the year that was… and here it is, month by month, through the bright eyes of the CityNews columnists – a quirky, serious, funny and sad look at the 12 months just gone. IAN MEIKLE wraps up the year with a look at December.

How lovely to end the year with a Christmas magic-pudding surprise from the ACT government, who suddenly announced, hoorah, we’re going into another $317 million of debt for a new 2000-seat theatre in Civic we didn’t know we needed.

And why, given the size of the seemingly unbudgeted project, did the Chief Minister Andrew Barr and arts czar Michael Pettersson hide their largesse under the bushel of a 6am announcement on Saturday, December 13 – a big pre-Christmas shopping day, when so many people will be, oh no, distracted? What kind of media management advice are these drunken sailors getting for their latest splash of borrowed cash? 

The only discernible money in the current budget is $33.385 million for “Capital Business Case and Early Contractor Involvement Procurement” and $5 million for lyric theatre design. Was there ever a business case done? Here we go again, someone call the auditor-general.

THE aggrieved Brittany Higgins had a magical December three years ago as she climbed the stairs to her room at an aspirational Yarralumla club, a $2.4-million millionaire after a day’s negotiation over compensation with the Commonwealth. 

But this October dogged former defence minister Linda Reynolds was successful in securing a defamation payout of $315,000, plus $26k in interest, plus a lazy million for her former boss’ lawyers. It all turned on a series of damaging social media posts, fallout from That Night on the minister’s couch in March 2019. 

But minus the magic this year, on December 12, the seemingly impecunious Brittany was ignominiously bankrupted by the Federal Court in Perth.

She didn’t come up with a cracker. So Reynolds chased her into bankruptcy as a means of unbuttoning Brittany’s mysterious trust where the compo millions are supposed to be parked. 

DURING the never-ending story that was Communications Minister Anika Wells’ expenses outing that tested the pub test everywhere, political columnist Michelle Grattan posted a great piece on citynews.com.au describing Anthony Albanese’s globally controversial social media ban on kids as a bold move into largely uncharted territory and saying it would take years to judge its real success.

One teenager condescending told me he viewed the legislation as “quaint” then listed on his fingers the work-arounds that smart kids are already working on.

Ms Grattan rounded out her column by sharing examples of the vagaries of policing pollies’ “within-the-rules” expenses, describing one, involving the PM, as “just another example of how politicians can drive a semi-trailer through their entitlement rules. It’s not just the kids who are good at finding ways to get around things.”

CITYNEWS published in successive weeks some of the most damaging revelations of how badly we are served by our debt-laden ACT government, thanks to the intrepid digging of columnists Jon Stanhope and Khalid Ahmed.

On December 11 our fearless heroes tore apart the shameful performance of the Suburban Land Agency and its “dismal failure” to reach annual targets.

Scrubbing away the gloss and spin of the agency’s over-produced 200+-page annual report, fizzing with happy, smiling faces, they chillingly revealed a 24 per cent shortfall in residential dwelling supply against the mandated budget target (what housing crisis?); a 100 per cent shortfall (zero achievement) in mixed use land supply against the target; a 100 per cent shortfall (zero achievement) in commercial use land supply and a 44 per cent shortfall in community use land supply as well as, of course, by a 7 per cent increase in staffing over the previous year!

“This is a dismal and embarrassing performance from an agency that appears to have lost focus on its core business, without any apparent accountability or direction,” they wrote with commendable restraint.

And if you’d been wondering how completely cactus we are financially, in this edition (December 18) is their magnum opus on the state of the budget (spoiler alert: dreadful).

With the heading “Debt spiral: the year Labor screwed Canberra”, they look at the independent audit of the 2024/25 accounts and reveal that “the total deficit expanded to a staggering $1.4 billion – the largest deficit the ACT has ever recorded.”

And that on average, net debt rose by more than $5 million a day, every day, including weekends and public holidays, including Easter and Christmas. Unbelievable. 

They write: “Despite the magnitude of the blowout, neither the chief minister nor the treasurer has bothered to explain the genesis of these damning outcomes.” Says it all, really. 

But the month was jarred by the unspeakably evil antisemetic shootings at Jewish families innocently gathering in Bondi. Its awfulness cast an emotional pall across the nation at the very time all families celebrate together. Hold yours close.  

Ian Meikle edits CityNews.