State Duty of Care ?

It is a fair question to ask ?   Just where does the duty of the state to intervene to stop self destruction begin and end ?   If a person is standing at the edge of " The Gap " in Sydney the cops and medics will wrestle them to the ground and take them to hospital for their own protection.  Suicide is not illegal, but jumping off the Gap breaks a littering law.

Sydney has long been fascinated with the ongoing story of a mother and her two daughters who live   in Boonara Avenue, Bondi.   These women are notorious hoarders and for years have crammed all sorts of rubbish into the rooms of their seaside cottage and enveloped the yard and garden with putrefying junk that has depressed nearby home values and made life a living hell for their neighbours.

Complaints to Waverley council have resulted in the issue of " clean up " orders  - which were ignored. In the full glare of the media, trucks and council work crews have descended on Boonara avenue and cleared the property.  As soon as they finish, the women start raiding wheelie bins and collecting all and anything that takes their fancy.   This growing pile attracts flies, rats and other vermin and the smell is beyond description.

Fourteen months ago the council demanded repayment of their costs in cleaning up this mess.  Once again their demands were ignored and legal recovery action saw the home listed for auction.   The neighbours rejoiced - but at the last minute the women managed to come up with $ 180,000 and the auction was cancelled.

This Boonara cottage is again a pile of stinking rubbish and once again council demands for the cost of recent clearing action are ignored.  This time the debt to be recovered is $160,000.  It is again listed for auction on May 19 and Real Estate predictions are that it may sell for more than two million dollars.   But it is very much a case of " Buyer Beware ".    The new owner will be responsible for clearing the remaining rubbish - and removing the women occupants to get possession of the property. They may not go easily and that could develop into a messy legal fight.

This entire matter raises a thorny question.  These three women have - over a period of years - been committing  " financial suicide " !   Their actions in surrounding the home they fully owned broke various laws and they were allowed to amass debt when the council was forced to move in work crews to overcome what was really a danger to the public.   There is the very real prospect that the sale will take place and they will eventually be evicted by the new owner - and they will have the balance between what was paid for Boonara avenue and the amount owing to council.

Probably sufficient funding to buy somewhere else - and once again this cycle of collecting rubbish may perpetuate the problem and inflict misery on whoever has the misfortune to live in the street of their choice !

Surrounding your home with junk is not the usual action of a sane person.   It would seem evident that these women are suffering some sort of mental disorder and because they are mother and daughters it is likely to have a genetic link.   Surely there are limits in the " privacy " and " personal freedom " we cherish in our society that permits intervention when someone is on a course of self destruction ?

Perhaps a time for public discussion of what laws should be put in place - to save people from themselves.