Lots of people are asking what sort of game the state government is playing with the people of Wyndham.
We all know politicians love to play games, but unfortunately they don’t use tokens like top hats, racing cars, thimbles, Scottish terriers or wheelbarrows like the old Monopoly board game. They use real people and the stakes are high.
In this current game a new jail (let’s call it the more user-friendly term, youth detention centre) is being built by Tim. Tim owns The Strand in nearby Williamstown and has built a house on it. Tim does not want the jail near his house on The Strand so he has chosen Park Lane as the site. The people in Mayfair don’t like that and are protesting. They are printing ‘Get The Jail Out of Here’ cards at a furious rate.
If this was a game it might be fun, but this is our reality and we’re all rolling the real-life dice to see how this pans out. If it were a reality show, it would be called I’m A Calamity – Get Me Out of Here, and Tim would have been voted off weeks ago.
Even an eating challenge as gross as eating his own words would not earn enough stars for his survival. Worse still, in the real world he will feel the wrath of voters. Politicians also love to deflect and introduce different topics as soon as they are under the pump. Tim is doing it on social media, posting lots of material that has nothing to do with the YDC but everything else his party is doing for the people of the west. How clever of him.
His parliamentary opponents are having a field day jumping on every opportunity to take the moral high ground, an easy place to be in this situation.
It would be nice to see a bit more substance rather than just a barrage of criticism while offering little alternative planning. Party politics … now there’s a cure for insomnia and a manufacturer of apathy. Unfortunately, social media is a meeting place for purveyors of the party line, and I mean all parties. Pleading for non-partisan views is fruitless, as these people are talking, not listening.
Many of those involved at the coalface have asked for a unified focus, and they’re right.
I will finish with the same words as last week: let’s focus on getting the YDC site moved.
If you have any news or events, let me know at kevin@howdypartnersmedia.com.au
