Very little gets Canberrans steamed up faster than cracking open a fresh discussion about maintenance standards in their suburbs. Or the lack thereof.
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When it was revealed that in the forthcoming ACT budget, $5.81 million over four years would be spent on the government equivalent of a footpath maintenance "strike" team, it was akin to lighting the blue touch paper of a skyrocket and standing well back.
That this crack team of government workers would be dispatched, caulking guns in hand, to patch up trip hazards and other issues set our readers aflame.
"Definitely an election approaching with all the porkies the government is spruiking," said one.
"There's enough damage to the footpaths in my part of the deep south that ... would interest the biggest civil contractors in the country," said another.
And yet another: "So much work in Canberra starts just before elections."
The slow progress of suburban maintenance around the ACT in the non-election years - the dangerous trees, the leaf-clogged gutters and the unlit street lights - is a constant source of frustration for Canberrans.
And to suddenly find a little extra cash in the tin for a team with a mini-excavator and some rapid-set concrete to tackle what was described as "small-scale" issues smacks of a government treating the ratepayers with disdain.
No one is fooled by such announcements. Self-government is a costly business but basic suburban maintenance must be prioritised ahead of ministerial vanity projects and pre-election pork-barrelling.
The online Fix My Street portal has a record of delivering around 70 per cent satisfaction from around 40,000 complaints per year.
The thorny issue of constantly cracking footpaths also feeds into the broader discussion about the ill-advised planting of trees on suburban nature strips. In places like Watson and Downer, the visual amenity for visitors is a leaf-heaped nightmare for residents.
Canberrans have every right to demand quality services given four years ago, Chief Minister Andrew Barr flagged rates would increase by an average of 3.75 per cent annually through to 2025.
Some of the older inner-city suburbs like Forrest and Deakin often do the heavy financial lifting and cop the biggest rate increases. But it's those older inner suburbs where the ageing infrastructure is most evident.
For all the promises of a responsive engagement with the community, what's needed from this government is more regular transparency and less pre-election posturing.
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