STERILE, SOULLESS? NOT CANBERRA

Sydney, April 13 NZPA - Australia's national capital has an unfortunate reputation for being dull.

It goes back a long time. Percy Deane, secretary to the prime minister's department in 1928, said: "The best view of Canberra is from the back of a departing train."

The sniping has never stopped. In his 2000 book, Down Under, Bill Bryson detailed watching through the capital's promotional tourist video, Canberra - It's Got It All!, and renamed it "Canberra - Why Wait for Death?"

Canberrans think differently, of course. They find the home of Parliament, the National Gallery and National Museum, a charming place, free from the complications of big city life.

They are also fiercely protective, if their reaction to a blast from New South Wales Premier Maurice Iemma is any indication.

Iemma stepped up to the rostrum after the Australian Capital Territory Government launched a "Live in Canberra" campaign, trying to persuade Sydneysiders to shift and help rectify its skills shortage.

The campaign targeted outlying Sydney suburbs suffering high unemployment and promoted Canberra's lifestyle "free of long commuting times and air pollution."

While it pointed out some of the drawbacks of living in Sydney, it was not denigrating, but Iemma was when he responded with a column in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

"Canberra is sterile, soulless and manicured -- still six suburbs in search of city," he said.

"And when you take out the monuments, what you have left is a well-heeled but otherwise ordinary regional centre -- a clean, pleasant, liveable country town."

In championing Sydney's harbour, its "magnificent golden beaches" and its buzzing inner-city districts, Iemma said he didn't want to be too harsh about Canberra.

"After all, it is our national capital, home of our great national institutions. It belongs to every Australian...We should all take pride in it."

But no, he still had a last dig.

"It's easy to make cheap jokes about Canberra -- the frigid winters, the mass of politicians, the unusual conglomeration of businesses in Fyshwick, the dizzying roundabouts and so on."

Predictably, there was outrage in Canberra.

Iemma -- who has a reputation of being well manicured but as dull as he finds Canberra -- copped a bashing.

Journalist Cameron Ross pointed out that lest anyone think the "six suburbs in search of a city" line was original, wit Dorothy Parker wrote last century "Los Angeles is 72 suburbs in search of a city."

Said Ross in the Canberra Times: "Iemma's criticisms have been judged and dismissed comprehensively for what they are: ill-informed, stereotypical and gratuitous."

Nothing in the $A300,000 ($NZ360,000) campaign by the ACT Government could be said to be provocative or threatening to the NSW Government, said Ross.

"Though Iemma's comments have to be taken with a grain or three of salt, they do illustrate the continuing blind spot that many Australians have about Canberra, due to ignorance as much as bloodymindedness.

While Canberra could have grown to be a high-rise metropolis like Sydney, its planners mapped it out to be something different.

"High-rise developments were to be restricted, hills and mountains kept free of housing and other development, and a single city centre eschewed in favour of decentralised townships which would enable people to live near their work and spare the city from gradual entanglement by cars and roads."

It didn't work out perfectly and Canberra does have traffic problems, but nothing to the extend of Sydney gridlock.

Letter writers to the Canberra Times fired their bullets.

"It is well known that Canberra people are better educated and more culturally aware than those of other state capitals," wrote Magda Sitsky.

"Let's face it Mr Iemma, your remarks about Canberra reek of ignorance. People who choose to move here might very well be improving their cultural, as well as their environmental, lifestyle."

Others commented that Sydney was a useful "weekend suburb" for Canberra and that most Sydneysiders only got to see their harbour when it was on TV.

However, it appears Iemma's comments have given the ACT campaign a huge boost, with numerous inquiries from Sydney about shifting to Canberra.

Canberrans are not likely to acknowledge the favour and the scars of the Belconnen Magpies (Australian Rules) Football Club may take a while to heal.

In his spray, Iemma said that to compare Canberra was like comparing the Belconnen Magpies with the Sydney Swans -- "who in case you missed it are reigning AFL premiers."

The Magpies' John Kimball said that given the opportunity, a Canberra team would not have taken 70 years to win the premiership, referring to the length of time it took Sydney and the South Melbourne side it transplanted to win the Aussie Rules flag.