I’m sure that there are many people around the world who would be surprised to find that it’s not already, but there are now renewed calls for Sydney to become the capital city of Australia.
Former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, reckons that the country should be run from the harbour city. He’s even picked out a spot for the nation’s new parliament. He says Sydney’s Garden Island naval base site would be a suitable place for Australia’s Federal Parliament.
According to this article at NEWS.com.au, Keating was delivering a speech on the future of Sydney Harbour last night and said that our current Prime Minister, John Howard, had effectively moved his government to Sydney already. He believes that Canberra has an air of unreality.
I will admit that Canberra is a rather odd place. I’ve visited Canberra a number of times and I do like it but it seems a strange place to put a city, especially a capital city.
If moves were ever made to shift away from Canberra I’m sure that there’d be a lot of debate over where our parliament should be. Melbourne would be in there slugging it out with Sydney for sure. Maybe they could move everything to the economic powerhouse of Australia, Perth.
I can’t see the nation’s capital moving to Sydney, or any other city for that matter, but I wonder what you think. Where do you think Australia’s capital should be?
Posted by Rodney Olsen
Technorati Tags: Canberra – Sydney – Parliament
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back where the original parliment was…i mean, its already the sporting capital, why not the political captial?
I like the idea that we created a city to be our capital.
Maybe that locational choice was not a good one though, hampering it’s effectiveness to become an economical buisness location as well.
I´ve been in Canberra, too, and it is kinda artificial – but it never made me make the link that the politics are artificial, too (or that that would be why politics are artifical ;-)…)
A friends´ son really learned at school that the capital city of Australia was Sydney, so this might show that many people not from Down Under might think so. Sydney is the best/most known town from Australia, still, I think.
But apart from stopping people learning/thinking of the wrong place for Australias capital city – or from preventing people to shout out the right way to pronounce it´s name to foreigners, I don´t see any use in a move to Sydney or Melbourne…
Ohh.. I have to add: Our government moved from Bonn to Berlin – I can see no improvement!
Other probably that people had a reason to go to Bonn, which is the case no more and it probably just did cut some jobs…
Berlin has enough visitors also without the government being located there…
Well give you one of our cities.
Would you like Chicago? 😉
Can we have Detroit???
😛
Perth for capital! 😉
Perth rules for the capital why doesn’t become its own country see how the rest will survive without the north west. hmmmmmmmm. now where to build the parliament house! I’ve just thought of the perfect spot just as you come out of the city over the causeway on your left there is a building that doesn’t need to be there, Burswood Casino.
As I recall, the only reason Canberra was created in the first place was because Sydney and Melbourne couldn’t settle the “we want to be the capital” argument. There’s nothing like going 100 years into the past to do the same thing all over again.
However, I still say that Werris Creek (look it up on a map) is the capital of the universe — it’s just that the universe hasn’t realised it yet!
Alice Springs, because it is the heart of Australia!
We have a nice compromise in the Netherlands (we almost invented compromises). Our capital is Amsterdam – you probably knew that :-), but our government resides in the Hague.
Alice springs can’t be a capital because a capital has to near the ocean. as you will see ACT has a coastal town in so it could qualify.
Stick with Canberra – they already have the infrastructure there plus I like the fact that we have a capital theoretically separated from the interests and bickering of the states.
Zoomz – what’s wrong with Burswood?
If it was to go in Perth I’d reclaim part of the Swan near Mounts Bay Rd and stick it right there front and centre 🙂