Posted 14/4/08

Lament Of A Successful Victorian Community Campaigner

The following is my experience as a successful campaigner...

I guess what is concerning me is the decision making process at State government level with regard to protection of our environment and prevention of inappropriate planning decisions.

The so-called democratic process, in which the people are supposed to be involved in the decision making process, appears to objectors to be along the lines of "we will let them object but let's make it so difficult they will give up or wear out".

• Firstly campaigners must know more about the process than the minister and the bureaucrats.
• Secondly,  they must then have the energy and the money to persist, remaining consistent and sticking to the facts.
• Thirdly they must then provide the government with the very legislation they have written.
• Fourthly, the campaigners must also somehow intuitively know which government bureaucrats or Ministers they can trust to carry out what after all are their  professed policies.

If all else fails the campaigners are:

• Required to find the money to pay for a lawyer or barrister to argue for them in "legalspeak".
• Sometimes these lawyers' breadth of knowledge about the specific issue is limited.
• The campaigners who have been voluntarily spending hours to the point of exhaustion can present, but unless they are well rehearsed take up too much time.
• One panel chair (in my presence) asked that husbands speak for wives - one woman replied that she did not necessarily have the same opinion as her husband!
• The lawyer's presentation is preferred by the selected panels chosen to hear the issue.
•  The lawyer or  barrister must be able to stare down a line up of barristers and Queens counsels chosen by well heeled developers.
• Acting to respect the community's/objectors' autonomy is barely evident in the inequitable power differential between the advocates.

BW