There's a sickness in the heart of our city, and you can see it on any walk through Civic: graffiti, boarded-up windows, and everyday Canberrans feeling unsafe. As someone who's spent a decade promoting Canberra to the world in a tourism context, I'm saddened by what's become of our CBD.

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And it isn't just a feeling. It's documented. A City Renewal Authority audit recorded 612 incidents of drinking, abuse, vandalism and threats over just 22 days, in broad daylight between 8am and 8pm. Ironically, one of the government's own observers had to be removed from the job after being threatened.

Only after the problem hit the headlines did ACT Policing roll out its "CBD Safe" patrols in June: the second such blitz in under a year, and, like the last, set to pack up in a few weeks.

But here's what too few will say out loud: the hollowing out of our city isn't bad luck or the business cycle. It's the product of Labor decisions, local and federal. And the worst of it is being run out of the department of our Labor senator, Katy Gallagher.

Our city is emptying out. Office vacancy in Civic sits at 12 per cent. More than one in 10 floors stand dark, and on current trends, industry forecasts have it climbing towards 40 per cent by the end of the decade.

While the heart of our city declines, the government precinct at Barton is effectively full, with vacancy under 2 per cent. That gap is no accident. Under a federal Labor policy (run out of Senator Gallagher's own department, no less), any major new Commonwealth office lease must now meet a tough energy-efficiency rating: 5.5 stars today, rising to six stars and all-electric from this July.

Many of Civic's older towers simply can't comply. So thousands of public servants are being marched south of........

© Canberra Times