This is a very unique story, the kind of story that could only ever take place in a place like Wollongong.
Apart from all the other places where stories like this have taken place. And keep taking place. In all, there have been at least 11 councils sacked in NSW from 1997-2008, and 32 corruption inquiries since 1989. So Wollongong is very far from alone in this area. Does it all matter? Compared to the scope of the political scandals that version 1.0 has worked with in the past, are these dodgy developments a bit too small-scale? Is this just a funny, sometimes silly show about a sex scandal with some loopy twists, such as the con men posing as ICAC officers? What are the stakes in local government corruption scandals? Don’t things like this happen all the time?
As a group of artists and citizens we had to wrestle with these questions. But through the process of making this work we have realised that in the end, all politics is local, and the primary tier of government that most citizens relate to on an everyday basis is their local council. The events, actions and inactions scrutinised in this ICAC inquiry have allowed us to consider what kind of relationship we want to have with the places in which we live, and with the governments that run the places in which we live. As citizens, we don’t think about that often enough. Hopefully, this show might provide such an opportunity.
David Williams, version 1.0, August 2011
