Doyle’s cheap shot on Adelaide

Posted by Michael on March 15, 2009, 11:16am, 657 views

Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle has scored an easy headline by suggesting Adelaide should be shut down.

“We should immediately commence the orderly shutdown of Adelaide,” he told The Sunday Age, marking his first 100 days as Lord Mayor.

It was probably a throwaway line, a small part of a bigger interview, but it’s still a silly thing to say.

Tongue in cheek or serious? It doesn’t matter really. Whatever Adelaide’s failings might be it’s just nonsense to suggest it should be closed down, regardless of the context.

Doyle sounds frustrated in his new role.

Cr Doyle is asking people to realise that he has little executive power. “I always knew it was a position of influence rather than direct intervention, but I didn’t realise that in so many areas this is the case,” he says.

I wish him luck in his war on bogans, but many of the ideas that Doyle has floated are unlikely to be implemented, like reopening Swanston Street to traffic and banning people from hailing taxis.

Maybe that frustration has manifested itself in Doyle’s grab for media attention.

Inevitably there will be a response from Adelaide to his remarks and nothing positive will be achieved.

It’s fine for a Lord Mayor to be parochial, but he also needs to be responsible.

The story in The Age was revealing for the information that Doyle’s great-great grandfather, Robert Bennett, was the city’s mayor in 1861-62.

“Bennett was a rogue accused of bribing his way into parliament. His neighbors so disliked him that they burned down his house.”

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Comments

One Response to “Doyle’s cheap shot on Adelaide”

  1. Q on March 15th, 2009 4:09pm

    What a dim-witted idiot.
    I live in Adelaide and there is certainly nothing wrong with it.
    Sure it’s not as fast-pace and as big as other states, but what a retard to suggest it should be shutdown.

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