Bloating city, lost freedoms

My city’s been assaulted by an enemy within
That eats away its organs and pushes out its skin.

My city’s been assaulted by an enemy within
That eats away its organs and pushes out its skin.
Its green lungs are encroached upon with buildings and cement
And trees fall prey to processes not for their benefit
The creatures that inhabit them are treated like invaders
And councils put up possum bands to help their friends, the traders.

An example of a 'possum band'. This ridiculous sort of chastity belt for trees to stop possums sheltering where they have always sheltered is a cruel device for which residents unwittingly foot the bill to councils in nice little rorts arranged with the manufacturers of these totally unnecessary devices.

Our Bay was scarred so drastically, fish habitat destroyed
Dutch shipping firms arrived here by our government employed
Our scarce tax dollars spent on something few can see
To make Port Phillip’s shallow bed a highway in the sea

Our gentle houses on their blocks with gardens so appealing
Are bought for land and then smashed down by developers unfeeling
A moonscaped block means 6 for 1 of this you can be sure,
But these are not, as one might think much needed housing for the poor
They sell for more as “garden free” than all that went before!
If I had my way, most certainly, it would be against the law

Our suburbs densify, we’re told, to save the outer land.
But it’s not saved, it’s sleight of hand, the UGB’s right out of hand
It expanded once and then again. The belt is never ending
Blocked arteries, obesity: that’s the report I’m sending.
Now living here in Melbourne is as on a building site
The noise and the disruption remind us daily of our plight
We’re trapped in growth, why won’t they see?
This is the path to take from us our precious liberty.