The mayors of the west headed to the national capital last week to present a wish list to the powers that be of the most critical needs of the people of the west. This was the high-end stuff – not your usual roads, hospitals and schools.
It got me thinking about my wish list for the west. What do we really want?
Sports lovers are a bit like the dog that caught the car since the Bulldogs won the flag last year. I would like to see a Premier Cricket team housed in Wyndham. Two clubs have made presentations in recent times, to no avail.
The road situation is an ongoing problem. There has been no shortage of plans and action groups, but never a real solution. I am starting to think we will never get ahead of the roads requirements in this area.
Every time I pass the new hospital precinct, I hope it will be the answer to many of our crucial heath needs, but the cynic in me thinks this will play out just like the road situation.
Public transport suffers from the same growth-related problems.
The recurring theme with almost all infrastructure in the west is the inability to get in front of the population growth numbers. The only people who seem to be able to do that are the land developers.
Most of our problems can be fixed by money, but no government has a bottomless pit of dollars to siphon exclusively into our backyards.
Anyone who watches the ABC series Utopia knows that government bureaucracy is easily lampooned because it is more about being seen to be doing a job rather than actually doing it.
Maybe it is time to look for solutions outside the normal avenues.
Let’s be honest, the job of a politician, as most of them see it, is to keep their jobs, not necessarily to find a solution to the Point Cook gridlock.
Good on our council for giving it a shot – I hope the trip was fruitful. As I said, it was big picture stuff, but if it means the bureaucrats take notice and we see some progress, then it was worthwhile. ■
