ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr told a budget estimate hearings yesterday he had taken “great pleasure” in cancelling his subscription to the Canberra Times yesterday, after having blasted the paper a few days ago as being “a tired old journalism outfit … a decaying forum in terms of readership and interest”.

The verdict came in the middle of a heated debate between Barr and opposition leader Jeremy Hanson, who said there was a “smell” around the 15-year Labor government. Hanson enlisted a series of scandals covered in the Canberra Times to bolster his argument, drawing Barr’s ire to the paper itself.

It’s hardly the first time Barr has attacked the paper, which has been doggedly pursuing series of local stories that don’t paint his government in flattering light. Canberra insiders say Barr’s views towards the paper are well known — he regularly criticises it in doorstop interviews, even when reporters from The Canberra Times are present. And he’s given regular interviews to Canberra’s broadcast outlets, but not to the paper.

What’s so startling about recent developments is that Canberra is, when it comes to local reporting, a one-paper town. Reporters at rival outlets say the paper has a history of getting drops and advance briefings from the government, and it’s understood it still maintains good relationships with others in Barr’s administration.

Asked to comment on Barr’s characterisation of the paper as a “tired old outfit … a decaying forum” etc., a Fairfax spokesperson said: “When politicians attack quality journalism like ours, it generally means we are doing our job right.”