An intriguing post title, I know, but what I really want to talk about is not the Sydney Opera House or the actress who plays Hermione Granger, but democracy. Surprise, surprise, I hear you say. And fair enough. I mean, we all will never get back the three hours of our life that Rob Oakeshott took from us when he spoke about the beautiful ugliness that would become the current parliament of Australia, and, I think, almost three years later, he’s probably right about the ugliness, but a lot of people have missed the beauty.
I know it’s not popular, but I think that anybody who has been paying attention would have noticed that there has also been plenty to cheer about. Carbon tax, mining tax, NDIS – all the while managing a strong economy in the times of global weakness. I think it’s a good thing. I know that’s not popular, but I don’t care. I’m used to being the voice of reason.
Anyway, that’s not what I wanted to talk about. Last night, I attended the Local Penrith City Council meeting, to show my support for the protests about the dumping of radioactive waste at Kemps Creek. It was a pretty interesting experience – and ugly, too. The first thing that struck me was, well, the amateurish nature of if. The motion protesting the dumping was eventually passed, but it happened in a pretty haphazard kind of way. The vote was supposedly passed unanimously – except it wasn’t and it took some of the other councillors to point out that it wasn’t -and one councillor had actually voted against the proposal.
But that’s not all – the next point that struck me was the pettiness of it all. Councillors raced to switch their lights on to speak first – like recalcitrant schoolchildren. It was clear form the start that, rather than acting in the best interests of Penrith, some people were acting in the best interests of their political parties. The lies and obfuscations about the classification of waste came from a few Liberal cronies. I don’t know how they sleep at night – but of course, they’re probably not worried about children and grandchildren of those living in Kemps Creek.
Shifty, very shifty.