The prevailing ‘you lick my arse after I lick yours’ routine that has the ALP and the Greens sharing the role of mayor of the City of Yarra and controlling the major committees and decision making processes in council seems to be in disarray.

The Melbourne Leader reported on 17 March that that the Greens have used the coincidence of two ALP aligned councillors missing a meeting to try to undermine the ban on street drinking on Smith St that was introduced late last year. The ban has been successful in making Smith St cleaner and safer, but as the Leader reported on 22 March, the problem has merely been moved elsewhere.

There is supposedly a meeting of Council on 21 April to discuss the issue further, but this is not listed on the council’s own meeting page as of 4 April so I cannot be sure of this information until it is officially confirmed on the council site (note it may actually be the meeting scheduled for 20 April – my source may be mistaken).

Meanwhile, a source has emailed me to mention that the Business on Smith St lobby group, of which I been critical in the past, is really a puppet of the council. It certainly seems to have no voice, never issues press releases, never has a public opinion and never does anything useful at all. This has been their big issue to date, but where is their statement? What is their policy? Hello?