Thought for the day, 28 August 2025

I'm not watching the Loafer's Lodge trial. I scroll past the stories or hit mute on the TV. I pretend it's not happening because the distress is more than I can bear.

The man who lit the fire should be and is being held to account. The media's covering his trial in graphic detail. But nothing is ever really caused only by the actions of one person.

Before there was a man with a grudge and a lighter, there was a boarding house without safety systems - even though its owner surely knew dangerous behaviour wasn't just possible but probable.

Before there was a boarding house without safety systems, there was a regulatory system that didn't create or enforce adequate rules.

Before that, there was an antipathy to making regulations, because that costs business owners money. There was a housing crisis that left people without options or dignity, and an economy that marginalised people with disability or mental illness or without employment, blaming them for their own situation.

There was a culture that gave a shit about none of the above.

That's the stuff we need to care about, the stuff that needs to be reported in graphic detail - the stuff we should find so distressing we can no longer bear to simply watch.

One man lit the fire, but it was inequality, indifference and cruelty that made it burn.

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