The road to mistrust

As the incoming Obama administration readied for the White House, former senior Clinton advisors wrote a report: “Change You Can Believe In Needs a Government You Can Trust”. With public mistrust so high, they warned the new administration to move cautiously before pushing through any transformational agenda.

UNSW’s College of Fine Arts should have read it. UNSW’s big-bang approach to ramming residents with the construction fallout from the $50 million redevelopment of its COFA campus are pure hubris over commonsense.

Rather than building trust, COFA has inflated mistrust. Instead of building bridges, COFA planned an ambush. Once again the Community feels that COFA has no regard for their concerns, their fears or insecurities, leaving us disheartened and very, very angry.

Like a red rag to a bull, COFA chose to take an arrogant, heedless and reckless approach saying, even though we know it will be unpopular, we’re going to shove this truck route through regardless.

In fact, COFA knew its truckulence would be so unpopular and the fallout so bad, at first they attempted to hide their plans from us for as long as humanly and institutionally possible.

Now, COFA pleads that time is against them. They must start work by July 2010, or it’s ‘use it or lose it’ time for their $48 million stimulus funding.

May we point out that COFA has had this windfall money in its hot little hands since May last year, and must have applied for it some time before that. Let me consult my digits and say … that’s onety, tooty, threety … that’s more than nine months COFA has wasted already.

Nine months! I could’ve planned, conceived and made a baby in that time. You have 48 million reasons to get your act together, COFA.

Have a nice, well-planned out, day.