the Sydney Morning Herald published HHT President Tony Coote’s letter responding to Michael Pascoe’s article Heritage laws should be demolished.

‘Self appointed heritage expert, Michael Pascoe, is clearly an avatar of that old-time religion of the 1950s – Progress.

Progress is the religion of property developers, miners, laissez-faire capitalists, billionaires and, until recently, our government, under Tony Abbott and his Team of anachronistic fundamentalists.

Progress, in a jihad against society, urges its adherents to pay no heed to environmental law (e.g. Heritage legislation) and to bulldoze their way through the world to make a quid.  They are encouraged to destroy the character of existing suburbs and are praised for digging up prime agricultural land and depleting ground water reserves.  They keep their eyes tight shut the negative impacts of their endeavours.   Blind also to hypocrisy, the high priests of Progress live in mega mansions with harbour views, swimming pools, multi-car garages and air-conditioning in every room.

The favourite TV show of Progressives is The Block.   In this “reality” game-show, teams compete to spend money on renovating houses and units for resale.  The winner is the team that makes the most profit on the sale.  This nicely reinforces a basic tenet of Progress,  that a person’s home is nothing more than a commodity to be sold for profit when the market is right.

As well, by imposing a kitsch, fashion-magazine orthodoxy on what is considered “taste”, The Block works to destroy the heretical idea that a dwelling might be inhabited by people with a world view that bears no relation to fashion or the market value of the things they choose to surround themselves with.

These people are the enemies of Progress‘s caliphate.  They are heretics or, as branded by Michael Pascoe, NIMBYs.’

SMH November 4, 2015

what they left. Photo Joe Armao

The Block winners face a massive fine and will have to ‘rebuild’ (?) the heritage-listed Melbourne home they demolished without a permit.  They also cut down all the trees  See details in SMH.

Some of us hate ‘The Block’. It completely commodifies places where people live.  

The winner is the one who makes the most dough on the resale and imposes a kitsch, fashion-magazine orthodoxy on what is considered ‘good taste’.  

The concept that a house or a unit will be inhabited by people who have their own idiosyncrasies and will make the house their own unique place does not exist in the mind of The Block.