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"Hove Canberra. I can't imagine anywhere better to live. It certainly
caters for the lifestyle I like — I go bushwalking, play squasHand tennis
and like to potter around the garden. The people here are nbt stuffy,,
they're very stimulating. It really has the potential to. be one of the very
great, cities of the world". . '
Mr TONY BLUNN
Returning to meet
the challenges
facing the ACT
By STEPHEN PAYNE
Mr TONY BLUNN,
the new permanent head of
the Department of the Cap
ital Territory, said yester
day he believed that the
next 10 years would see
Canberra's character firm
ly set.
That character had two main
elements, he said. Many people
assumed that .the decade would
virtually end the Com
monwealth's development of the
city as a national capital.
Most of the public buildings and
institutions would be.completed and
he believed that the new Parliament
House would have an immense im
pact on the city's character.
He was equally concerned with
Canberra's character as a living en
vironment for its citizens. "We have
had the debate about the develop
ment of Tuggeranong and infill and
other basic issues. All these will have
to be developed to finality in the next
10 years",' Mr Blunn said.
He was looking forward to return
ing to the Department of the Capital
Territory to meet the challenges fac
ing the ACT and to work with the
"professional and high-calibre" sen
ior staff of the department, all of
whom he knew well.
. Asked if the recent report of the
Review of Commonwealth Func
tions made it an inopportune time for
the move, he said with a grin, "Gov
ernments make policy and public
servants give effect to it. I really find
it hard from this distance, without
access to the department's detailed
analyses, to measure the full impact
of the decisions.
"A lot of the things that have
excited public comment seem to be
extensions of things that have been
around as proposals for some time.
"Some elements will hurt and take
adjusting to, but overall the thrust
of the policy is not too distant from
what a lot of people would like to see
— a healthy private sector in Can
berra".
He said his personal view was that
a system in wjiiclv the people of the
ACT accepted the responsibility for
a large number of the decisions
affecting them was highly desirable.
"If that's what people mean by
self-government, then I personally
am a strong supporter of it".
In broad terms the major issue
facing him in the new post would be
making the administrative
machinery capable of meeting the
adjustments the Government was
making to the Territory and of meet
ing the needs of the people.
"We will have to look very hard
at continuing the development of the
financial basis:of the Territory. I
mean this not only as an accounting
exercise but as a focus for people's
appreciation of the way in which the
Territory works at the various levels.
"I think the municipal account is
in good shape but the territorial and
national accounts need more work
done on them", he said.
He thought the philosophy of small
government was a challenge to pub
lic servants to become better man
agers than in the past.
A resident of Canberra since
1958, he made no secret of his strong
personal feelings for the city. "I love
Canberra. I can't imagine anywhere
better to live. It certainly caters for
the lifestyle I like — I go bushwalk
ing, play squash and tennis and like
to potter around the garden. The
people here are not stuffy, they're
very stimulating. It really has the
potential to be one of the very great ■
cities of the world".
Mr Blunn has lived in the Belcon
nen suburb of Macquarie for the
past 12 years with his wife and three
teenage children, each of whom at
tends a public school.
He described his new appointment
as "returning to the fold". He had
been an assistant secretary in the old
Department of the Interior, was City
Manager from 1975 to 19(78 and
served a further 18 months in the
department's Government Division.
Mr Tony Blunn: "brimming with ideas and with a tremendous drive to carry them through".. Help
Mr Tony Blunn: "brimming with ideas and with
a tremendous drive to carry them through"..
He moved then to head the De
fence and Works Division of the
Department of Finance, where he
again remained for about 18 months.
He was promoted to his present
position as deputy Secretary in the
Department of Business and Con
sumer Affairs last November.
Predictions that Mr Blunn would
become permanent head of the De
partment of the Capital Territory
were made as long ago as 1976 when
he was chosen to act in the job,
during a short absence of Mr Lou
Engledow, in preference to older,
more senior officers.
He is probably best known to the
people of Canberra as City Man
ager, a job he filled when aged only
38, after 12 months on exchange
duty with the Canadian National
Capital Commission in Ottawa.
He established a reputation as
City Manager for being particularly
concerned with the human needs of
people in the suburbs and em
phasiscd recreational and welfare
services.
He said yesterday, only half jok
ingly, that the position of City Man
ager had been created to divert some
of the flak which Canberrans tradi
tionally directed at the head of the
department. •
A former colleague has described
him as a man brimming with ideas
and with a tremendous drive to carry
theni through. He is also .a warm
man and anything but stuffy
himself.
He entered the Public Service at
the age of 21 after four years with
a firm of solicitors in Melbourne. He
later obtained a law degree after
eight years' part-time study at the
ANU. . .
He moved to Canberra as a civil
ian with the Department of the Navy
and then worked in the Departments
of Air and Immigration. He was next
promoted to the Public Service
Board and three years later to the
Department of the Interior.
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