The fiasco on the hill.(Letter to the editor)

SIR: In "The Fisher King and the Siege Perilous" (October 2006) B.J. Coman denigrates political reporting, particularly in times of relative prosperity and stable government: "They [the press gallery] will continue to utter totally Tantastic prophecies because that is the only way in which they can induce an already bored public to read their dreary columns."

There is certainly an increasing anathema towards political issues created by an uncritical and uninformed media. And John Howard's repeated electoral victories have paved the way for a great increase in the power of the prime minister--so far to the detriment of a crucial focus on the decline of some of our democratic institutions--particularly, the increasing collusion between politicians and the media.

Coman does not mention that a major problem with the dissemination of information to the media is the very nature of the Parliament House design in its functional role. There is no effective forum for the press and other media, such as at the White House in Washington; politicians are trapped by the media as they enter the building or accosted as they return from jogging.

When the building was opened in 1988 there were howls of protest from journalists who said they were intentionally denied access to their sources of information. Now we have a situation where "manufactured 'news' is reported and rereported over the next few weeks or even months", as Coman says, or worse still, the media indulge in leaks and deals within the parliamentary milieu.

In his article B.J. Coman argues that behind some ancient myths and legends there is a great deal of wise reflection on the human condition and, more particularly, an incisive commentary on the nature of political power and its dangers. Likewise, I will draw upon paradigms that can be traced to remote antiquity to demonstrate briefly that the concept utilised for the present building was entirely wrong for a parliament house, and did not accord with the proposals of 1912.

Walter Griffin, having won the international competition for the Canberra design, declared: "I have planned an ideal city." There is a symbolic content to his plan expressed by a specific esoteric geometry, the most significant element being the axial organisation of the city: there is a land axis emanating from Mount Ainslie which aligns the circular parliament house site on Capital Hill; and its position is fixed by a cross axis and a vertical axis mundi (as in the crossing of a ...