When you dig deeply into the 'social housing cum homelessness issue' what reveals itself is somewhat extraordinary. Those at the front line of the 'helping and caring cohorts' in the city have some extraordinary stories to tell. The most extraordinary are the conversations and meetings with politicians and their advisors et al where 'confidentiality' is the imperative – for whatever reason. Nonetheless, the stress of NOT being able to speak up and call out injustice and recalcitrance is palpable and quite detectable in their voices.
So, being excluded from such meetings is largely a blessing if you have ever spent any time as a 'government public servant'. Here your conscience tells you that you should but for the sake of your family's wellbeing you know that you cannot. Nonetheless, if you have an idea about which 'rocks to look under' much can be gleaned and revealed. In fact, there is much that can be exposed, much of it being all manner 'political cum bureaucratic skulduggery' that needs to be outed.
Council will form a committee, a 'feel good committee', essentially designed and devised to deflect criticism and critique plus prove that the 'issue of homelessness' is not really 'Council business'.
At the drop of a hat Mayor van Zetten will tell anyone who'll listen just how terrible homelessness is but actually its not Council's job etc. etc. ... we'll do what we can ... say put a committee in place etc. etc. Then the GM/CEO reinforces the obfuscation to shut down any form of critical discourse around the table at an OPEN COUNCIL [LINK] meeting and on the record – most recently, shut down as much questioning on the record as possible.
It has to be said that, on the evidence, the elected representatives are relaxed and comfortable with the 'status quo' as are civic leaders who are afraid to do anything that might change a city's status quo – albeit changing before their unseeing eyes. However, Ronald Reagan has left us with a poignant quote which goes something like this ... "the status quo is quite simply Latin for the mess we are in".
Minister Guy Barnett is always on the ready to explain the 'he is holding the hose in regard to social housing' and like Mayor van Zetten will tell the world how many dollars are on hand to address the issue by whenever – a long way off – and how many houses be plans to build by whenever – again a long way off. The telling factor here is the enormous gap between what the Minister aims to provide and the amount of housing required to alleviate the 'housing cum homelessness crisis'.
Then there is Councillor Paul Spencer [Link] who has inside information, as a 'tradie', relative to the number of apparently empty houses 'out there'. He'll tell anyone who will pay attention that there are 'hundreds' mostly in a state of disrepair that makes them unliveable. By all accounts fixing these houses is a 'good earner' and their existence is simply 'grist for the mill' – welcomed indeed. Like Mayor van Zetten, at the drop of a hat Cr. Spencer will discuss the undeserving poor with whoever it seems will lend a sympathetic ear. Somewhat curiously he reports that he had received "some good advice from Pauline Hansen. LINK" – quite probably not about homelessness.
Cr. Spencer on the pretext that he "does not have the numbers" typically votes with the mob if it is good for tradies and developer cum investors. And that is not to mention all Councillors present who voted to curtail incisive, worrisome and apparently too time consuming questioning of Councils performance. This speaks quite loudly not of Cr. Spencer's performance or ideology as a 'representative' but relative to every Launceston Councillor who put their feet under the decision making table at Launceston's Town Hall.
Like most, if not all, Cr Spencer's fellow Councillors he has been known to talk up the proposition that Launceston's homeless need to 'move elsewhere and go on the dole' even if it means giving up a paying job, losing access to needed health services and other social support services. The fact missing here is that homeless people are not helpless or stupid.
For the critical thinkers out there there is a lot of bewildering information to take on board. In regard to 'social housing and homelessness', as they say, "flip a rock", and you are bound to find that things are even more perplexing than you had imagined. If you come to live and work in the City of Launceston you'll soon discover that status quo peri-colonialism is all too evident and at odds with meaningful change relative to real world change in process all around us no matter where we live.Call this out and you will be ostracised at every turn.
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