Steve Price: Melbourne councils more focused on war in Palestine than fixing local roads

Melbourne councils are more interested in fighting global warming, supporting Palestine and cancelling Australia Day than what they are employed to do – fixing local roads and collecting rubbish.

Local councils are focused on bigger issues rather than roads and rubbish.

Local councils around Melbourne seem more interested in supporting Palestine and fighting global warming than picking up your rubbish and fixing your roads.

The lunatic left and preachy Greens dominate many local town halls, putting up motions and voting on everything from flying the Palestinian flag and cancelling Australia Day.

Suburban councils – certainly those in the inner ring of Melbourne – have lost the plot, hijacked by activists from the left and now dangerously out of touch with their ratepayers.

Not satisfied with crippling local traffic with unnecessary 40 km/h zones and newly-installed speed humps they have joined the bike lane cult favouring cyclists over cars.

Melbourne City Council, led by Lord Mayor Sally Capp, sets the bar for useless wasting of ratepayer dollars providing an appalling example for the smaller councils that surround the city.

We’re setting the pace on the world stage at #COP28 – campaigning for investment to reduce emissions, cool our city and stimulate our green tech economy. pic.twitter.com/079ukhgNzg

— Sally Capp AO - Lord Mayor of Melbourne (@LordMayorMelb) December 1, 2023

Green agendas seem to be a convenient pathway to freebie global travel and grandstanding by low level suburban wannabe politicians.

Lord Mayor Capp just this week bobbed up at COP28 the UN-organised global warming conference that ended in high farce.

Staged in the UAE’s oil funded desert city of Dubai of all places, with an estimated 100,000 climate warriors flying in. As reported in the Herald Sun Capp found it necessary to take two colleagues with her – so a three- person delegation from a City Council that cannot have any impact on the climate. While there she joined 1000 leaders in government, industry, philanthropy and science to sign a letter calling for a stop to the use of fossil fuels.

Wow! I wonder if that includes the Lord Mayor planning to stop using hire cars to attend council events that cost ratepayers $30,000 last year.

The hypocrisy is breathtaking especially from a council leader who vowed to use bikes and public transport before being elected.

Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp in the back of a ratepayer-funded limo.

This greenwashing, virtue-signalling simply ignores essential council responsibilities like cleaning up graffiti and moving on the homeless or fixing potholes.

The MCC though has a five-year climate emergency plan – you can access it on their website. We are three years into that five-year wishlist that has six objectives. Sounds promising until you dig a bit deeper and find that the objectives and priorities include motherhood statements around safety and well- being, Melbourne’s unique identity and place – whatever that means – Aboriginal Melbourne and access and affordability.

This all gets much worse when you realise this climate agenda drives the bike lane installations that become a convenient measure of the council’s zero emissions pledge. Less cars get you climate change brownie points. Then, as reported this week, investing nearly $43,000 in a Chinese hydropower project in remote China to claim carbon credits against the investment.

Of course, this ignores the fact that the Chinese themselves are among the world worst polluters and are throwing up coal fired power plants by thad he dozen. Climate hypocrisy again.

It really gets hilarious with the climate emergency plan bragging about carbon free council sponsored events like the Melbourne Fashion Week. They even pat themselves on the back for telling guests to catch public transport to events like Fashion Week, recycling catwalks and, wait for it, serving less red meat.

You can’t make this stuff up and I wonder if the council really believes stick thin models in expensive handmade fashion who probably don’t even eat red meat even know what a tram is.

It’s not just the MCC that have lost the plot. Merri-Bek council is infamous for its obsession with green left socialist causes eagerly running the Palestinian flag up numerous Town Hall flagpoles and passing a council motion labelling Israel’s reaction to a terrorist attack by Hamas that killed 1200 people and saw hundreds kidnapped.

Disgraceful and useless virtue signalling from a mob who can’t even collect the rubbish efficiently.

Councils are more interested in supporting Palestine and cancelling Australia Day than doing what they are meant to – fixing roads and collecting rubbish.

Then we have the Stonnington Council and its retail destroying plan for an already struggling Chapel St. The once glitter strip between Toorak Rd and Commercial Rd is already a shop empty mess with the Jam Factory an empty ghost town and a full block down the road being used as a machinery storage area for another State Government train project.

Between Commercial Rd and High St, the footpaths are filthy and dotted with a shifting tribe of homeless people. At dawn most days what nightclubs are left tip drug affected all night clubbers into Chapel St who then stagger on to recovery venues. That part of the street is threatening for pedestrians and most people seeking retail now head to High St Armadale instead.

With this mess getting worse Stonnington has decided to spend one million dollars on a planning report on what to do. The solution- that has local traders in disbelief- is to start charging for parking along Chapel St with meters. This is simply a clear cash grab as parking is already limited to an hour at a time and allows locals to shop locally load up the car and support local businesses.

The million- dollar masterplan has identified apparently that people want more trees, natural shade and garden beds with outdoor dining, festivals and markets and less traffic. Local retailers say this will be a death for retail and encourage more homelessness.

I suspect every council in metro Melbourne is making just as stupid decisions conjured up by second rate agitators with so much time on their hands they run for local council.

It’s never been more urgent for more council amalgamations, the installation of qualified administrators and a state minister for Melbourne.

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Originally published as Steve Price: Melbourne councils more focused on war in Palestine than fixing local roads