Comment: The absurdity of the homeless campground proposal
Put yourself in the shoes of Brad and Ashley, a 30-something couple from Wollongbar. Half their income goes towards paying taxes and council rates. Every spring they look forward to the simple pleasure of escaping with the kids to the amazing Flat Rock tent park.
They love the beach, the natural setting and of course “the serenity”. So much in fact, they’ve booked the same spot the past three years at much-anticipated intervals.
One day Ashley takes a call from the park manager advising they can’t have their usual patch this spring, because the council has dictated it be allocated to the homeless.
Sure there’s another close by, the manager says, but as you have children, we have a duty to inform you’ll be sharing the facilities with the former rough sleepers our council has taken responsibility for.
When I first saw the recorded minutes from the February council meeting where this decision was passed, (with only the Mayor opposing it) my immediate response, posted in a Facebook forum, was I thought it absurd.
Some Smart Alec chimed in to the conservation, ribbing me about whether I thought that because it was some “far-left conspiracy”.
Actually my overriding concern was the potential cost to ratepayers taking on responsibilities of state and federal government. Experienced council operators like Mayor Cadwallader, (who now sits on the board of Local Government NSW), know that “cost shifting” as it’s called, is one of the biggest financial challenges forcing up rates nation-wide.
And you don’t have to be a right wing conspiracy theorist to appreciate that this proposal, like many bright ideas from the Greens Party, does have certain Marxist/communistic overtones.
Pity the poor park manager who signed a lease with council to operate the facility, working long days and nights to provide good service and to try and make the business viable.
Now council proposes to override the lease and dictate how it’s to be run at a micro-managerial level. Ballina Council leases would now count for nothing and you may as well throw your business plan out the window.
The Green’s crazy idea was made slightly more amenable by the addition from independent councillor and business woman Michelle Bailey who suggested the General Manager identify other more suitable sites including vacant Crown land.
Already there’s speculation as to where those sites could be -and of course in the age of NIMBYism, nobody wants the homeless camp anywhere near them.
Sadly, not a single councillor mentioned or showed any genuine appreciation for the risk to Ballina ratepayers being forced to foot the bill for a housing enterprise that could prove hugely popular once the winter chill hits. Word is sure to spread fast among the many hundreds of rough sleepers in Sydney and Melbourne that the generous folk of sunny Ballina are rolling out the red carpet.
Ballina’s newly elected crop of independent councillors could do better in future by taking their lead from the most experienced person in the room, rather than the economically illiterate and virtue-signalling Greens Political Party.
