SOD! SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY!

Now this…… is comedy.
“Politics should be left out of local government, and I totally believe that.”—Erin Deering, the 2024 Deputy Mayor candidate for the City of Melbourne, is also known as one of Australia’s richest women, amassing a sizeable fortune from selling small pieces of material to cover women’s bits. (I hear in the distance Elon Musk murmuring, yes yes yes, erndearing, yes…)

It’s Money—and not Politics—but Money, Money, Money’s influence on people who are in the business of politics that should be left out and kept out of government decisions, right? At all levels, local, state, federal! Thing is, while not everybody believes in God, everybody believes in Money. Trust in God, why not; believe only in Money, absolutely; but why take the politics out of local politics? Am I missing something?

And so, from the personal to the political, let’s follow the Money, shall we?

The biggest donors to candidates in local council elections revealed | The Age | Rachael Dexter, Nathan Perri (11 January 2025)

Erin Deering, Arron Wood and Intaj Khan were three failed deputy mayor candidates for Melbourne City. They are also three of the six biggest cash donors to the 2024 Victorian council election campaign.

The other three biggest donors were the Australian Greens, Liberal Party and “Residents Of Port Phillip”. Why the “inverted commas”?

“Residents Of Port Phillip”— or R.O.P.P. —is “not a political party” that first introduced itself as “Ratepayers Of Port Phillip”. Isn’t this how disinformation starts? Just havalaff?

“Keeping Politics Out Of Port Phillip?” Just havalaff, please, please.

Q: Does slapping a homeless rough sleeper with a fine the moral and practical thing to do to stop the homeless person from rough sleeping? Where do you send the infringement notice? Do local laws apply to non-residents?

Q: If we really cared about community safety, shouldn’t we start with the domestic violence raging inside our homes and the hooning just outside our windows? These issues cause more harm and danger than homeless people who are really doing it tough living rough in commercial high streets, carparks, and public parks and gardens. Incidentally, a leading cause of homelessness is… domestic violence.

Q: If we care about what’s happening in the distant Third World and war-torn countries, what’s stopping us from caring about the Fourth World and the marginalised who are right here in our midst? We cannot ignore that in St Kilda the posh, the penniless, the punk and the pitiful have always co-existed. It should never be a surprise to anyone who’d decided to come near this area to live, to love, to work or to play to see people who don’t quite fit the picture-perfect postcard town the City Of Port Phillip is thought to be.

The vilification of homeless rough sleepers—and lying in all its forms—have no place in any decent and dignified community. Let’s keep those out of Port Phillip City.

Why criminalising homelessness is not only cruel, but economically irresponsible | Council To Homeless Persons | Deborah Di Natale (19 March 2025)

Gerome Villarete
5 March 2025
Art Saves Lives

For the record.

The biggest donors to candidates in local council elections revealed | The Age | Rachael Dexter, Nathan Perri (11 January 2025)

Vested interests, money, and the democratic deficit | Grattan Institute (February 2020)

Money in politics: the good, the bad and the what could become ugly | International Institute For Democracy And Electoral Assistance (December 2018)

Money in politics: a flood of political donations | Centre For Public Integrity (January 2021)

Political donations: A corrupting influence? | Parliament Of Australia

Eliminating the undue influence of money in politics | Centre For Public Integrity

Democracy before Dollars: The Problems with Money in Australian Politics and How to Fix Them | University Of Melbourne website (November 2024)

Political finance law reforms will reduce big money in politics, but will rich donors be the ultimate winners? | Parliament Of Australia | Joo-Cheong Tham

Stark Inequality & crimes against humanity go hand in hand

SOD! MUST REDISTRIBUTE NOW

Inequality Kills | Oxfam

“The wealth of the world’s 10 richest men has doubled since the pandemic began. The incomes of 99% of humanity are worse off because of COVID-19. Widening economic, gender, and racial inequalities—as well as the inequality that exists between countries—are tearing our world apart.

“This is not by chance, but choice: “economic violence” is perpetrated when structural policy choices are made for the richest and most powerful people. This causes direct harm to us all, and to the poorest people, women and girls, and racialised groups most. Inequality contributes to the death of at least one person every four seconds.

“But we can radically redesign our economies to be centred on equality. We can claw back extreme wealth through progressive taxation; invest in powerful, proven inequality-busting public measures; and boldly shift power in the economy and society.

“If we are courageous, and listen to the movements demanding change, we can create an economy in which nobody lives in poverty, nor with unimaginable billionaire wealth —in which inequality no longer kills.”—Oxfam International (January 2022)