It was the question of the week: why were we closing schools and no one else was? Why did other states think it fine to follow federal government advice and simply bag up and safely dispose of the potentially contaminated sand, while we went full Chernobyl and sent in the teams in hazmat suits? (A hat tip by the way to our print producer Ben for the "Enter Sand Men" front page on Tuesday).

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The answer, our editorial argued, was a good old case of ACT exceptionalism.

Much more than the other small jurisdictions, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, the ACT has a long track record of going it alone.

Some would say that's one of the great things about our progressive little territory that could. We've been leaders on drug policy, consolidation of government services, renewable energy and tax reform.

But it has been a patchy record, to say the least.

A case in point was this week's dramatic and chaotic response to the sand situation, where we engineered a crisis that is still keeping some kids at home and parents away from work.

Our workplace-health-and-safety laws, while noble in intent, mandated the frankly silly scenes of full public school closures and removal of tiny little tubs of sand as if they were anthrax. Meanwhile Catholic schools went about their business.

While the Education Minister, Yvette Berry, boasted of these toughest-in-the-land laws,........

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