Melbourne, once hailed as the world's most liveable city, is unravelling. Its streets, once alive with art, sport, and sophistication, now echo with the chaos of rising crime, empty storefronts, and a creeping sense of authoritarian control. United Australia Party Senator Ralph Babet calls it a "woke wasteland," a city where progressive policies, economic mismanagement, and social division have replaced its cultural vibrancy with a dystopian nightmare. This isn't just a local tragedy, it's a warning for every Australian city. Melbourne's cultural collapse, fuelled by years of Labor rule and unchecked ideology, is a glimpse into a future where freedom and prosperity are sacrificed for rainbow crossings and QR codes. See how once-beautiful Melbourne got here and why it's on the road to dystopia.
The Fall from Grace
Melbourne was once Australia's crown jewel. Known for its laneways bursting with street art, packed sports stadiums, and a thriving café culture, it earned UNESCO's City of Literature title and drew global envy for its liveability. But as Senator Babet notes, years of Labor governance, 21 of the last 25 years, have turned this beacon into a "dumpster fire." The city's Central Business District (CBD), once bustling, became a ghost town during the COVID-19 lockdowns under former Premier Daniel Andrews, dubbed "Chairman Dan" for his authoritarian streak. Small businesses collapsed under the weight of prolonged closures, with 2021 data showing over 20% of Melbourne's small retailers shuttered permanently. Even post-COVID, foot traffic in the CBD remains 30% below pre-2020 levels, per City of Melbourne reports.
Crime has surged, with Victoria Police reporting a 7.8% increase in offenses in 2024 compared to 2023, including violent crimes like assaults, up 10%. Public transport, once a point of pride, is plagued by delays, Metro Trains Melbourne reported only 88% on-time performance in 2025. Meanwhile, the cost of living has soared, with median house prices hitting $1.1 million, pricing out young families. This is a city full of ethnic and political factions, where congestion and hospital wait times spiral out of control. This isn't the Melbourne of old—it's a city losing its soul.
The Dystopian Turn
Melbourne's decline feels like a page from a dystopian novel, a genre Australian writers have long used to warn of societal collapse. As the National Library of Australia notes, works like John Marsden's Tomorrow When the War Began, amplify fears of authoritarian control and cultural erosion, themes now eerily relevant. Under Andrews' leadership, Melbourne endured some of the world's strictest lockdowns, 261 days total in 2020-2021, with curfews, 5km travel limits, and police smashing car windows for non-compliance. A 2020 article from Open The Word called it a "dystopian nightmare," with residents needing "proper paperwork" to leave home, enforced by helicopters and searchlights.
These measures didn't just crush businesses; they eroded freedoms. Basic rights, like gathering or traveling, were rebranded as "privileges" tied to QR codes, as Babet notes. This authoritarianism lingered post-COVID, with policies like "safe injecting rooms" and sprawling bike lanes prioritised over practical infrastructure. The Victorian government's $125 billion debt, driven by projects like the Suburban Rail Loop (costing $50 billion and counting), reflects what Babet calls "infrastructure blowouts" that burden taxpayers while delivering little. On X, Craig Kelly, @craigkellyAFEE dubs Melbourne "Hellbourne," a "sprawling helltropolis" where socialism and migration have "destroyed the very soul" of the city.
Wokeness as the Catalyst
The heart of Melbourne's decay, according to critics, is an obsession with progressive ideology, what Babet calls "latte socialism." Rainbow pedestrian crossings and arts grants for niche causes flourish, while practical needs, like safe streets or affordable housing, are ignored. The University of Melbourne's Find an Expert highlights how cultural narratives, like those in dystopian fiction, reflect fears of a society losing its way. Melbourne's embrace of "woke" policies, such as valuing identity politics over economic realities, mirrors the dystopian trope of control through ideology. X posts, like Senator Babet's @senatorbabet's claim that waving an Australian flag in Melbourne gets you labelled a "white supremacist," point to a cultural shift where patriotism is vilified, and division is sown.
The Road to Dystopia
Melbourne's trajectory evokes dystopian fiction's warnings of societal collapse through overreach and neglect. The Plan Melbourne 2017-2050 strategy promised growth and liveability, but as The Age reported in 2017, outer suburbs like Clyde face being "trampled" by unchecked urban sprawl, risking "ghettoisation" without proper infrastructure. By 2050, Melbourne's population is projected to hit 8 million, yet transport and housing lag, with only 2-3% of residents cycling to work due to hostile road conditions. This mismatch between vision and reality echoes dystopian themes of a society promising utopia but delivering chaos.
Economic policies rooted in neoliberalism, as critiqued in the Melbourne Declaration analysis, value accountability over equity, leaving the poorest behind. Professor Philip Alston's 2018 lecture warned of Australia's social policies "speeding towards dystopia" by punishing the unemployed and deepening inequality. Melbourne's skyrocketing rents, consuming a third of incomes, trap young people in a cycle of financial despair, a hallmark of dystopian narratives where the masses are dehumanised.
A Warning for Other Cities
Melbourne's collapse isn't just a local problem, it's a cautionary tale. As Babet warns, "wokeness like any virus spreads fast," carried by bureaucrats and subsidised ideologies. Cities worldwide, from San Francisco to London, face similar risks: choosing symbolic gestures over practical governance, alienating citizens, and eroding trust. If Melbourne can fall from "marvellous" to "Marxist," as Babet puts it, no city is immune. The solution lies in rejecting ideological excess, restoring economic sanity, and prioritising what made Melbourne great: its people, not its politics. No easy task given how far the decline has gone.
In short, Melbourne's slide from cultural capital to dystopian decay is a tragedy of mismanagement and misplaced priorities. Rising crime, failing infrastructure, and a culture of division have replaced the city's vibrancy with a grim forecast. Dystopian fiction, from The Handmaid's Tale to Cleverman, warns of societies undone by control and neglect, Melbourne is living that warning. For everyday Australians, this means a city less affordable, less safe, and less free. Unless we demand accountability and reject the "woke wasteland," Melbourne's road to dystopia could become a blueprint for cities everywhere.
https://news.senatorbabet.com.au/p/melbournes-meltdown-from-cultural
Melbourne's meltdown: From cultural capital to woke wasteland
Once the world's most liveable city, now a dystopian playground for bike lanes, lockdowns, and latte socialism. Is your city next?
If Melbourne were a person, it'd be a 35 year old non-binary arts student, still living at home, sipping a soy milk latte while lecturing you about "privilege".
This was once Australia's cultural crown jewel. A beacon of art, sport, and sophistication. Now? It's a case study in what happens when a government - egged on by socialist ideologues and Twitter academics - gets its hands on the steering wheel and decides the brakes are optional.
Under Dan Andrews (or as the locals came to know him, Chairman Dan), Melbourne became the global poster child for lockdown lunacy. For a while there, we were neck and neck with Pyongyang in North Korea in the "enthusiasm for authoritarianism" stakes.
Small businesses? Crushed.
The CBD? A ghost town.
Basic freedoms? Rebranded as "privileges" and handed out like dog treats, QR code first, human rights second.
But never fear, the Labor brain trust had a vision, one that involved more bike lanes, heroin shooting galleries disguised as "safe injecting rooms," and infrastructure blowouts so enormous they make the NBN look like a dollar store bargain.
Let's run through the scoreboard, shall we?
Crime? Up.
Public transport? Late.
Cost of living? Through the roof.
Unions? Running the show.
But chin up comrade, there's a rainbow pedestrian crossing on every second corner to remind you that progress is being made! Just don't ask where your tax dollars went. That's hate speech now.
Here's the real worry! Melbourne's rot and mental illness won't stay in Melbourne. Wokeness like any virus spreads fast, especially when it's subsidised by taxpayer-funded arts grants and bureaucratic busybodies with degrees in gender studies and no concept of economics or the real world.
Melbourne is the canary in the coal mine."