Deliberations

Last week we received a letter from the Family Services department of our local government, the City of Maribyrnong. It notified us that all parents must re-register children for kindergarten. The convention has been that when children turn two, we get them on the list and state our preferences for preferred centre (there are several from which to choose). It was mid-term school holidays, and less than a week of warning was given before we would lose our place. I was incensed. After rushing the form about my 3-year-old daughter to the Council office (I was not about to trust a free-post envelope), I called my local Councillor, who knew nothing of it. I then emailed my federal member of parliament. And I wrote a letter to the editor of two of our local newspapers, with a copy of the Council letter. My objection was that the council was culling the list in a most callous manner. We are in a baby-boom with far more children than places in childcare and kindergarten. Furthermore, rather than the straightforward system of prioritising by registration date, the Council is now taking control and arbitrarily assigning placements. So instead of having our daughter in a centre close to the primary school her sister attends, we might have to drive every day to both drop off and collect them. Not great for a Council that wants us to reduce our carbon footprints. The Council letter included all our registration details, yet demanded re-registration with a complete form that looked just like the old one, ostensibly because they are implementing a new computer system. What a complete furphy! They have all the information they need from us, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to shift it to a new system, especially when the data is exactly the same! A journalist from one of the papers, The Mail (a Fairfax Community Newspaper) rang me and asked me lots of questions, indicating that I would get a whole story up. A photographer came took a nice picture of my whole family in front of our house. In a follow-up call after the closing date for re-registration, the journalist told me that she had spoken to the Council officer and only 200 of 600 residents had re-registered, confirming my fears. But she said the officer denied that people would lose their places, and that they would be mounting a telephone campaign. We have since heard that several parents did not even receive letters. And they will be working rather than at home when that telephone call might be made. The story appeared in the paper this week. It said nothing about my worry that Council was taking executive and arbitrary control. Instead, it just painted me as an over-worried parent afraid that we'd lose our privileged spot. Most of the article quoted the Council officer completely contradicting the very letter that had been sent out! The journalist's name is Dinah Arndt, and she is a dead-set apologist for our local government. The publisher's motto is "We've got it covered". They can add "up" to that. In this same week we learn that our property rates will rise immediately by 40%. An enormous rise. The other newspaper rightly made a mockery of Council's reasons for approving the increase, which will drive many long-time residents on fixed incomes straight out of their homes. Meanwhile, in The Mail the same Dinah Arndt wrote: "Spare a thought for the Council that have such a small rates base". WHAT!!?? What do they teach prospective journalists these days? They could learn something from Helen Thomas, recently retired US White House correspondent, who was so shocked at the meekness and acquiescence of her colleagues in accepting the lies and distortions coming out of the Oval Office regarding Iraq that she turned around during a White House press conference and demanded to know where all the reporters were.

I think it's a degradation. I think it's a default on the part of the reporters to not call the hands of these people and say, "Look you said this yesterday and you're saying this now. How can you approach the ... people with this?" We're supposed to be an informed people. We can handle the truth.

So even when people take the time to try to be informed about what is really going on, the media plays silly buggers. I think lack of faith in the fourth estate is an even bigger loss than distrust in politicians and the executive of government. Together, it's just numbing.

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