Victorian Government At It Again (Renaming Lakes!)

This is the beautiful Berwick Springs Wetland Reserve southeast of Melbourne. Sorry, I just dead-named the lake. I can’t call it that anymore. As of 9th November, it’s now called ‘Guru Nanak Lake’. Was the community consulted? Of course not! “Residents blindsided after local lake renamed without consultation” Who is Guru Nanak? He was an Indian spiritual teacher, who is regarded as the founder of Sikhism. He died around 485 years ago! Do you think he ever visited Australia? Do you think he ever had any association whatsoever with Australia? Of course not! So why is a lake in Berwick in Victoria being named after him?

Just to be clear, I’m not here to criticise Sikh people. I’ve got nothing against them in any way. It’s not like they renamed the lake. They don’t have that power. So who did rename the lake? The Victorian Government, of course! So why did they do it? I don’t know, to be woke I guess. They love showing how progressive they are by using their power to ignore their constituents and blindly pursue their zealotry. But in the name of fairness, let’s see what Premier Jacinta Allan’s website says:

“The Allan Labor Government is supporting Victoria’s Sikh communities with the renaming of a landmark in honour of Guru Nanak and funding for Langar events”. Apparently, we can celebrate Langar, but we can’t celebrate Australia Day. According to her website, the “Minister for Multicultural Affairs announced $600,000 in funding for Langar Celebration events across Victoria”, with Langar being “the tradition of people sharing a free communal meal, regardless of their gender, class, nationality, or faith.”

They still haven’t really explained why they’re doing this. But I’ll press on, “Victoria is home to Australia’s largest Sikh community, with more than 91,000 Sikh Victorians”, “Part of the Labor Government’s work ensuring place names reflect Victoria’s rich diversity and history, the renaming of the lake follows consultation with key Sikh community leaders and traditional owners.” But yet, they seem to have ignored the actual residents of the area.

“Victorians are encouraged to nominate exceptional individuals from underrepresented groups – including women, First Peoples, and multicultural communities – to be honoured through place names.” Basically, as long as you’re not a white man, you can have a place named after you, residents objections be damned!

According to the State Government’s ‘Name a place in Victoria’ website, they actually include a couple of other categories. “This includes women, First Peoples, LGBTQIA+, people with a disability, and people from multicultural backgrounds.” So I take back what I said before. You can be a white man, as long you’re either gay, got a disability, or identify as a woman. “Commemorative names recognise people who were held in high regard by the community, usually only after a person is deceased.”

So let’s check Guru Nanak’s eligibility. “To be commemorated, the person will: be deceased”. Yep, he died over 450 years ago! “Have left a lasting legacy”. Yep, I think he’s definitely done that by founding a religion! And, “have a long association with the nominated area”. Again I ask, what does an Indian spiritual teacher from 500 years ago got to do with a lake in Berwick? With all due respect, I don’t think he meets that third requirement. Anyway, the Victorian Government have pushed it through anyway, your opinions be damned!

Do you think this sort of thing would ever happen in say China or Japan? Just for instance, Lake Biwa in Japan. Just say a whole bunch of Christians moved in. Do you think the Prefectural government would happily rename it to say, Lake Jesus? I can safely say there’s a 0% chance of that happening. Renaming this lake Guru Nanak Lake is like renaming it Genghis Khan Lake because a number of Mongolians live in Victoria. It makes about as much sense.

Liberal Member for Berwick Brad Battin said he was disappointed the local residents weren’t properly consulted. Local resident Michael Ball told media, “We have no disrespect to the Sikh community who do fantastic work, but the lake is the identity of our area.”

Mr Ball has organised a Change.org petition where he rightfully asks, “What relevance does Guru Nanak born in 1494 and founder of Sikhism have to do with our local area? Why was the Sikh religion chosen, given we are a multicultural community with many religions and community groups living in our area?” Good question, one that the good Premier probably won’t answer.

It’s funny, they can spend all this money on arbitrary name-changes and Langar events, but yet just in the news today, “Foodbank forecasts 70,000 Victorians may need help with food this Christmas”. Victorians don’t have enough money for food, and here they are pursuing their progressive agenda on the public dime.

In my reckoning, there’s only one way out of this. Victorians have to vote their way out of this.

MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn