13/09/2026
Latisha and I attended a community meeting yesterday that was organised by members of our community who have had enough of the antisocial behaviour happening around Redcliffe. I completely understand many of the genuine concerns that were raised because everyone deserves to feel safe in their own community, but I also felt there was a lot of favouritism towards certain opinions and some things were being blamed on homelessness that have actually existed in Redcliffe for many, many years. I’m not sure how many people realise that Redcliffe has always had a history with drugs, addiction and antisocial behaviour. These issues didn’t suddenly appear because homelessness has become more visible. Anyway, enough of the negativity because Latisha said something to me tonight that I thought was worth sharing. She asked me to really read the words to the song Another Day in Paradise. We have probably all heard this song hundreds of times without actually stopping and taking in what it is saying. It tells the story of a homeless woman asking for help while someone chooses to walk past and pretend they can’t hear her. The words that really stand out are “Oh, think twice.” And I think that is such an important message right now. Think twice before judging every homeless person by the behaviour of a minority. Think twice before assuming we know somebody’s story or how they ended up where they are. We can absolutely expect people to respect our community, our parks and other people. Antisocial and criminal behaviour should be dealt with regardless of whether somebody is homeless or housed. But we can do that without losing our compassion. We care about everyone in our community. Our children and families deserve to feel safe, our residents deserve to feel heard, and people experiencing homelessness still deserve dignity and humanity. Sometimes we need to stop, look beyond all the anger and division and just think about it. ❤️ https://youtu.be/Qt2mbGP6vFI?si=i94rljAaNvwxuKP7