RUBBISH! Roads, rates and ...

 

Who doesn't love a TWS?  That's a "three word slogan" to you.  They're a great way to express allegiance - your tribal identity:

 GIANTS For Ever .  

 HOLDEN Rules the Mountain .

 I Love Cake .

[That last one is mine.  I'm thinking of getting some badges made - message me if you're interested!]

But, on social and political issues, they are also deployed to distract and deflect, to obfuscate, to suppress discussion of a complex issue.  Purveyors of such messages do so in order to remain unaccountable.  They exploit tribal allegiances (including in compliant media) to promulgate and amplify these messages in order to avoid, obstruct and shut-down intelligent, thoughtful debate about the issues of the day.  They invite people to take the easy path of accepting simplistic and deceitful responses, thereby delegating their thinking to others.  In short they lie.

Roads, Rates and Rubbish

Three word slogans frequently contain a grain of truth.  And in so doing they invite acceptance that they represent the whole truth.  It is rarely the case...

And so to roads, rates and rubbish.  Undoubtedly these are three things that council deals with.  Indeed they are three very significant things.

But the implicit suggestion that these things represent the entire function or responsibilities of council is hugely dismissive and disrespectful of the work of the elected councillors, the management, the ~600 council staff and many more contractors and their employees.

For more about local government functions and responsibilities refer to some of the reading suggested at the end of this article.  Also the links to the Hills Shire Annual Report and Hills Shire Plans provide good indications of the breadth of local government activities.

Just RUBBISH!

We have frequently seen this deployed as an “argument” (!!) against our local government taking action on climate change.  We have a two word response: just RUBBISH!

Firstly there is, of course, huge scope for council to take climate action directly in connection with two of those things: roads and rubbish.

But we also say this is just RUBBISH for the following reasons:

  • Local governments are frequently amongst the largest enterprises in their area.  They have large numbers of staff, own and/or manage many buildings and facilities, have significant vehicle fleets and undertake a huge variety of works and activities.

    As a large enterprise they have a large carbon footprint and, like every enterprise or organisation or individual, our children desperately need them to reduce that footprint to zero as soon as humanly possible.

  • Local governments have a unique leadership role.  They have multiple channels to communicate with the community, with business and industry and with peer councils and with other levels of government.

    As the level of government most closely connected with the people they have an obligation to use those channels to advocate for their communities.  And no issue is more in need of their advocacy than climate change.

When used as grounds to dismiss local government climate action, road, rates & rubbish is just RUBBISH!

Reality Check

The NSW Liberal Party has recently stepped in to usurp the prerogative of the local Liberal branches, dump most of the sitting Hills Shire Liberal councillors and replace them with their own hand-picked candidates.  They are seeking to assert ownership and control of the Hills Shire Council. Would they bother ... if the council is just about roads, rates and rubbish?

And finally, just for fun: Alphabet Soup anyone?

Three word slogans frequently employ poetic techniques such as rhyme and meter to magnify their appeal.

In this case the technique is alliteration.  Lo and behold!  Roads, rates, rubbish are all areas of council responsibility that start with ‘R’!

So we spent just a few minutes thinking about other roles, responsibilities and obligations of local government starting with letters other than ‘R’.  We don’t pretend that it’s an exhaustive list and we’ve struggled with a few letters.  Feel free to help us out with more ...

A Aquatic centres, Active transport, Aged care, Air pollution

B Bicycle paths and routes, Biodiversity assessment & management, Bridges, Bushcare, Bushfire preparedness

C Car parks, Child care, Community centres, Cemeteries, Commercial (strategic planning), Coastal management

D Development planning & consents, Disability care, Disability inclusion

E Energy efficiency, Ecological & Environmental planning & management, Emergency & Evacuation planning and coordination

F Footpaths, Festivities, Flood preparedness, Feral pest management

G Gardens, Governance

H Housing approvals & delivery, Heritage protection

I Infrastructure, Industrial precincts

J Jobs (strategic planning)

K

L Libraries, Leisure facilities, Land use & management, Lighting

M

N Nature protection, Natural resource management, Noise pollution

O

P Planning, Parks, Playgrounds, Playing fields

Q Quarries

R Roads, rates and rubbish, of course!  Also Recycling services & facilities. And actually loads more but that’s quite enough here for ‘R’.

S Signage, Swimming pools, Sports facilities, Showgrounds, Sustainability, Strategic planning

T Traffic management, Transport, Theatres, Trees management

U Urban services land, Urban heating protection

V Village greens

W Waste (food, garden), Water use & conservation, Waterways

X Xylophones (oops! you really did read this far 🤣)

Y

Z Zoning

More information:

This blog and our Facebook page and our administrators are not affiliated with any party or candidate standing in The Hills Shire Council elections in 2021.  Nor do we receive funding from any individual, party, institution or corporation.  Our very constrained expenditures are financed by the page administrators themselves acting in a personal capacity.  Our only interest is in a safe climate for current and  future residents of the Hills Shire.

Email: climate.matters.hills.2021@gmail.com

Message: m.me/ClimateMattersHills2021

Facebook: facebook.com/ClimateMattersHills2021.

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