On Monday, a group of local people showed how working together for a common goal can produce sensational results.
Residents opposed to plans for a container intermodal terminal at Moorebank worked in harmony to ensure that they got their message across at a public hearing of the independent Planning and Assessment Commission (PAC) of NSW.
There were obstacles galore: the meeting on a working day, Monday [February 1] and out of Liverpool, there was little notice and even that was during school holidays.
But they didn’t let any of this stop them and now they are reaping the rewards of working together.
It did help that these good men and women had in their corner someone like Craig Kelly, the Federal Member for Hughes.
Mr Kelly was only one of 40 speakers but his well researched speech focusing on pollution risks really resonated at the hearing.
No wonder then that the PAC hearing got national media attention, including the Premier, Mike Baird, who was not too far away on the day, forced to admit publicly that it looked like there was a need to reconsider the location of the intermodal.
“We will have to look at Badgerys Creek as an alternative location,’’ Mr Baird said on TV.
Just two days after this heroic effort by the people of Moorebank and surrounding suburbs, another group of people reminded our world that we are equally able to do the opposite – fight each other.
Liverpool City Council’s first meeting of 2016 was not its finest hour.
There were arguments between councilors across the floor, there were ridiculous points of order and there was heckling from the public gallery, which was packed with council staff.
The incessant squabbles climaxed when Cr Peter Ristevski was expelled by the mayor.
The perception that the town’s leaders are more interested in a power struggle that’s conducted out in the open could hurt Liverpool.
Of course these things do happen in politics, but you’d like to think that everyone would put Liverpool first and their ambitions a close second.
Liverpool, like the rest of the south west, is going well at the moment, attracting a fair bit of investment, but there’s still a long way to go.
If the council continues to carry on the way it did on Wednesday night, many investors may well decide to take their money somewhere else.
There’s no doubt the stakes are high because Liverpool is seen as ripe for development after decades of stagnation, but open warfare is not the way forward.
The two sides should try to resolve some of their differences in private and keep public slanging matches to a minimum.
But with federal and council elections in the horizon, don’t hold your breath.
