Sydney Biennale Boycott Repercussions - for this writer- a huge fine

Well, no doubt the authorities are simply dying for me to write this, but my fines for having my car parked outside my house ( I could not park next to it off the road because the kerb was too high to drive over and the Newcastle council was not prepared to help me) have now escalated to almost $2000 even though I have been to court, long ago sold my poor car to the wreckers for $100 and was assured by the judge in my first court case that he agreed with me that I was Not Guilty as I had assurances from the council ranger that it was ok to leave my car until I had worked out whether to re-register and fix up (if I could get the money) or have it taken to the wreckers. Strangely enough the first fine notice was delivered the very same day that I went to Sydney to interview the international artists in the 19th Sydney Biennale boycott who were giving a talk at SCA. I interviewed them with the Refugee advocates and trauma counsellor they were working with to make their piece that in the end was shown at the Biennale (on my blog The Daily Fugue)- as the boycott was successful and Transfield sponsor managing detention centers using torture resigned. However Transfield is instrumentally involved in public transport and roads infrastructure and I am sure there are connections here. I am not scared. They can't bully and intimidate me in such a pathetic way. I feel sorry for them.

Ruth Skilbeck.

Kerbstone, or Single Mother Academic Curb Your Enthusiasm

Kerbstone: Single Mother Academic Curb Your Enthusiasm

Yesterday an incident occurred - in my short absence whilst I went to Sydney to hear the talk by international ex Sydney Biennale artists, Libia Castro and Olaf Olafsson who have withdrawn their work in protest to the ties to detention camps profit of the major sponsors, Transfield a construction and infrastructure corporation that is also involved in arts sponsorship. (Which I have been writing about on this blog).
When I returned after a busy day - 3 hours each way on the slow train (there is not fast train) 6 hours on the train in all and in between a few hours at the talk, at Sydney College of the Arts then talking with the artists, about their new and ongoing work that they are still making with Refugee Art Projects artists and a psychologist dealing with trauma- an exciting and significant work that I look forward to participating in and reviewing here soon, when I returned almost at midnight, I found an unpleasant surprise awaiting me:

A $1,212.00 fine, in two almost impossible to read ticket details under the windscreen wiper of my poor old car, that died many months ago and has been parked outside my house, as I cannot park it next to the house on the section of my property where I as a citizen should and could (if I had means) be able to park as I pay rates, for basic council service, and everyone else in my street and the surrounding street, has access to their own property/yards off the street but me. That is because the kerbstone is old- and over 100 years old- a 12inch deep solid convict hewn kerbstone between the gutter and pavement is too high for me to drive over, if it was not, I would have simply parked my car next to my house, and would not have this problem now, a problem of poverty which is recurring and seems to plague me.

But I am surprised and dismayed, I had spoken with a ranger a few months ago and explained that it was my house, my car, I have not used it unregistered, it is waiting until I can either afford to have it fixed and registered, or to have it taken away, by a wreckers yard and he said that was all right to leave it there, until I had been able to raise the money (thousands of dollars) to have the kerbstone altered myself, so that I could drive over it. He said the council it seems does not provide that service, although I certainly do not own the kerbstone in the public street, yet it seems I have to be the one to pay to have it modified. Why?
To make it worse, this is the second time that due to lack of money, I have been fined $1200 for having my own car parked- unused- outside my own house (the property I pay annual hefty rates to the council for), as I have not been able to afford to have it registered, and have not been able to afford to have the kerbstones, council property modified so that I can simply do what every other neighbour around here does, drive their car to sit next to their house.

I am the one who is now hit with massive fines because I have these massive problems of kerbstones on the street outside my property which I pay rates for and have done since 1995.

I wrote a short story based on this, and the impossible situation facing single women, older women, divorced mothers, and precarious workers in today's economy, when a resistant public thing, like the height of a kerb in a public street, can make it impossible for some to cross, and remain solvent.
Whereas for others, the men who are able to (illegally but they do it) make their own modifications to council kerbstones with hammers and tools put in their own kerb modification, and driveways, or find the metal plates that they use as ramps to drive up.
When I first had this issue, I rang the council and asked if they could help me, if they had any ramps I could use, or did they know where  I could purchase those metal ramps, to drive my car up next to my house. I was told that these are illegal. But there are lots of them around here, I can see them!
Does not matter they are illegal.
Still it seems they are not fined.
Or they would not still be there in use on the same street I live on.

The response was a couple of days later- the first of  $1200 fines, that I have been penalised with in the last three years. So far with yesterday's fine that makes almost $2,500 because I have not been able to drive over the council kerbstone and park the car next to my house, where it is allowed to sit unregistered until I have the means to fix it. Meanwhile it is sitting in front of the house, instead of the side of the house, on the public street, because I cannot drive up and over the public kerb which for some unknown reason the council has not modified, even though they have done works on the streets in this area for the past three years now including modifying the kerb just a few metres further up the street so that people can more easily and safely cross the road.
But not for me.

Even though they know of my problem as I have discussed it and they "gave me permission" to put in a driveway and have the kerb moderated so long as it was using the plans they specified. A council officer came out and measured the kerb and sent me the plans with the legal gradient.
This only for me of course. My neighbours next to me and all the way up and down the street, have done it, or someone has for them. At whatever angles they arrive at.
I was told the house over the road was illegally done,
Still I am the one who is penalised for staying within the law and not simply finding a way with metal or wood to make a ramp.

So it is a case of a single woman penalised for not having the balls to break the law which is what so many do, by having the physical strength and means of doing it themselves.
And in a place where the council does not help by modifying their infrastructures so that rate-paying citizens can access their own properties.
At least not for single women in precarious life positions.

Instead they fine them.
Huge fine which have the potential to break them.
It was the same when I was working as a casual and contract academic, never able to make ends meet year round, because they would never give enough work, to make this security- and to enable me to do things like put in a driveway and have the kerbstones in the public street modified so that I could have access to the yard of my own house which I pay for.
My story Kerbstones, Single Mother Academic Curb Your Enthusiasm, will appear in a collection of my short writings, Breaking Away to be published later this year.

It seems that it is still relevant.


Ruth Skilbeck 7.3.2014