Now approaching the 12-month mark of this council’s first term, have the councillors listened to community concern about wasting money? 

The proposed car park off McGaffins Road in the extreme west of the city is a case in point. The car park is part of the Council’s Hills Strategy and proposed for people wanting to walk to the top of Federation Hill.

Ample parking in the street now caters for this need so why the need for a car park?

The topography of the area predetermines the car park would be built at an exorbitant cost. It is planned behind a residential area, away from street view and impinging on the privacy and security of residents.

Such a car park – unlit and isolated – would clearly attract the anti-social element we read and hear about on a daily basis.

In the most recent strategy available the car park is said to cater for a small number of cars, the anticipation being two cars any given time. Surely catering for two cars at any given time is the epitome of wasting money given there is provision for at least 12 cars in the street. Is the Council seriously considering mega dollars constructing a car park for two vehicles?

Surely sweet reasonableness should apply. Surely ratepayer and/or grant money would be better spent elsewhere. Surely the councillors will see this as a wilful and wicked waste of money as hundreds of residents and ratepayers see it.

The views hundreds of residents and ratepayers is borne out in a petition calling for, in part, protection from the Hilltop Strategy along the interface of Federation Hill which sprawls from the Felltimber Creek estate to Cambourne Park to the east and soon to be presented to the Council.

Again, will the councillors listen?

If you can’t listen to the advice of an old friend who also happens to have one of the world’s finest legal and human rights reputations, you are probably in trouble. And Malcolm Turnbull is up to his neck in it.

Michael Kirby’s clear assessment of options for changing legislation in a parliamentary democracy drop the black handkerchief on the Coalition’s current plebiscite options. The Coalition’s position clearly militates against the best interests of minorities and offends the test of humanity. 

Dame Marie Bashir’s words still echo around regional Albury as she reminded us that societies are judged by the manner in which we treat our most vulnerable members. Saving face at the expense of human lives is brutal economy and Turnbull and his party owe the Australian people a change of direction having taken a wrong turn.

Turnbull’s leadership model – ‘strong leaders keep their promises’ – is also fatally flawed. Strong leaders will change direction based on the best evidence and take others with them. Instead, with Turnbull at the wheel, the parliamentary vehicle seems stuck in reverse.

The Pandora’s box of the plebiscite has already started to unleash its volatile contents across the community with the same voices that opposed social reforms such as gender equality and votes for women raised against basic human rights matters already embraced by most of the civilised world.

It is disappointing that religious perspectives are failing to affirm that hallmark of connected spirituality being the capacity to change mind, heart and direction according to human need. Creating safe havens for faith based hatred should not be the business of any government. The passionate leadership of Kirby exposes the anaemic prevarications of our elected representatives and Turnbull and his party are in desperate need of a transfusion of reality and compassion to change direction and save their political skin, if not their soul.