Smart Cities

RELAX, IT’S ALL PART OF THE AGENDA …

Over the last twenty years, a “planning revolution” has taken place in Australia.

A revolution brought to you courtesy of ICLEI – (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives – Local Governments for Sustainability) – an international association of local councils, committed to implementing the UN’s Agenda 21/Sustainable Development at the local level.

What bothers me the most about ICLEI, is that it is an international NGO made up of local governments that hold private meetings on council policy that aren’t open – or accountable – to the people of Queensland.

Members are given webinar training sessions, regional workshops, international peer networking opportunities and a library of local government model ordinances, policies and resolutions.

ICLEI also represents Australia’s local governments at the UN’s Climate Conferences.

According to Australia’s Constitution, local governments are not supposed to engage in foreign policy.  That includes forming international alliances, treaties and/or agreements.

But, I’ve noticed that Australia’s Constitution no longer seems to be enforced.  Governments just do what they want regardless.

In any event, ICLEI initiatives have transformed Queensland radically on the principle that all human habitation must be restricted to land within the “Urban Growth Boundaries” of our cities, or “human settlement zones”.

Under ICLEI’s guidance, councils have revised zoning laws to allow high-density and small-lot development in urban areas, while imposing more and more restrictions on land uses in non-urban regions.

They want people off the land and into cramped, overpriced inner city apartments on the train line, where there’s no yard, no privacy and no parking.

At the policy level, rural and remote regions are being starved – or drip-fed – the revenue they need to maintain infrastructure and services.

Council roads are not maintained, parks and sporting facilities are left to rot, while police stations and hospitals are shut down.

Monies are instead diverted into ‘sustainability initiatives’ and ‘inner-city revitalisation’ programs.

Call it Smart Growth.  Call it Sustainable Development.  Call it Green Zoning, Capacity Building, Catalysing Change, Creative Pathways or whatever you like – it all amounts to one thing: a top-down, authoritarian agenda, with no input from the public.

Everything is done using phony neighbourhood groups and paid facilitators, trained at presenting a range of choices geared towards a pre-determined outcome.

It is only the illusion of ‘public buy-in’ they want.

Meanwhile, they have created so many planning boards, commissions, regional agencies, non-profits, roundtables, panels and committees, it is impossible for anyone to keep up with what is going on.

One thing, though, is unmistakable.

Everything that is happening, was meant to happen.

The plan is to restrict your choices, limit your funds, increase your anxiety, narrow your freedom and take away your voice.