Not in My Backyard

The protesters to McDonald's at Tecoma say that VCAT didn't consider public opinion when they overturned the council decision and allowed McDonald's a permit. I don't know the intricacies of VCAT's decision but I don't think VCAT is there to adjudicate by public opinion poll.

I know it costs money to go there. When I objected to Cardinia Council's proposal to issue itself a permit to remove thousands of sweet pittosporum trees from council roadsides I was told council was proceeding despite my objection and that I could appeal to VCAT if I liked. When I looked into that I found that it would cost me hundreds of dollars to lodge an appeal, I would have to make myself available on the day the case was to be heard in order to present my submission, and should my appeal not be successful I would be liable for the costs of the council. Touche. There was no way I could undertake that at the time. They took out the trees. The trees are growing back fortunately.

In the Tecoma / McDonald's case it seems to be a matter of zoning and the site is zoned commercial. To deny Maccas and allow other fast food and hamburger joints is discriminatory. Unfair. That's why there is such a thing as an appeals tribunal.

The horse bolted long ago. When I lived in Melbourne pre 1972 I don't think McDonald's existed there at all. I bought the best hamburgers ever at Angelo's fish and chip shop. When I went to Wangaratta in 1976 I'd regularly indulge two with the lot from Nick, the Greek guy's take away opposite my office. Now there are Maccas all over Melbourne, in country towns of any size throughout Victoria, and strategically located along freeways. There's even one in Kandahar I read somewhere. McDonald's do their homework, they put franchises where traffic flow or population demographics tell them it will be profitable. And they are.

The protesters may as well throw cream puffs at B Doubles on the freeway.

My parents moved out of the city forty years ago to escape the increasing traffic snarl, choosing the quiet country town of Emerald. Tecoma also was a quiet little place, although much closer to suburbia and inside the electrified train network. Emerald now has a peak hour traffic jam through the main street, not as choking as that in Tecoma but getting there.

The gate was opened years ago. We as a nation embrace automobile culture and its connotations such as fast food and soft drinks, shopping malls, satellite suburbs. We lap it up like the cat with the cream. McDonald's in Tecoma is a tiny pimple on a destructive cultural giant that has been rampaging for decades.

Emerald will be next, as night follows day. Then, down the track, could it be? Gembrook? No thanks, not in my backyard. But I'm.....temporary.....and compared to the millions of refugees being displaced or about to be by climate change I have little to complain about. I'm sure they would not mind a McDonald's close by.

It would mean they have somewhere to live.

I have no beef with a McDonald's franchise opening in Tecoma.