Despite being the home of the central institution of Australian democracy, Canberra was long denied its own democratic rights. Initially envisaged as a seasonal town where people would only come when Parliament sat, even once it became a fully-fledged city and national showpiece, federal governments were keen to control it so they could fashion that showpiece how they pleased. It was only in the 1980s, under the greater imperative of cost efficiencies for the federal budget, that the ACT gained its own legislature, and ever since it has maintained a distinct political culture quite unlike the rest of the country.

In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Gary Humphries AO about the ACT’s political history.