“The Wiggles’ music is created to bring joy and happiness to children and families around the world,” a spokesperson for the Australian children’s music group said in a statement, “and we are deeply disappointed to hear that it is being used in any other way.”
Dozens of homeless people camp out on the stage at the Graham Bricknell Music Shell and around its nearby bus stop, said Louise Giolitto, the chief executive of the Western Australian Council of Social Services, a nonprofit that promotes social equity. City of Bunbury officials previously forced homeless people out of the arena for a period during the fall of 2021. And this isn’t the first time the city has been accused of trying to drive away homeless people with music — in 2016, Peter Allen’s “I Go to Rio” played on a loop at the bandshell.
Miguel, who was elected mayor in October 2021, said Thursday that music has been constantly playing at the bandshell for roughly the past six months to discourage crime — a tactic cities have used for more than a decade. In the past six years, people have set fires on the stage, he noted, and a man was charged with murder following a death at the nearby bus station in January 2021.
The music shell’s speakers first played Australia’s national anthem, Miguel said, though the songs periodically changed. But someone broke into the control box earlier this week and increased the volume, Miguel said. He said a suspect has not been identified.
Miguel said the city turned off the music Thursday.
“This is a public facility, and this area is a public area. We want to make sure that it’s safe for everybody utilizing that,” Miguel said. “But also, we obviously don’t want to be causing any agony for people who are down there and enjoying that space.”
Cities and business owners in the United States have also been accused of using polarizing music to push out homeless people. Officials in Florida played “Baby Shark” on a loop in 2019 in a park frequented by homeless people. A Texas 7-Eleven store owner in January said he played classical music with the hopes of keeping homeless people away from customers.
Some Australian officials condemned the city of Bunbury’s blasting “Hot Potato.” John Carey, Western Australia’s minister for housing and homelessness, said in a statement that the city playing music on a loop “is not a constructive way to assist the most vulnerable members of our community.”
Some advocates said they believe the city was weaponizing the Wiggles to harass homeless people. Giolitto said that playing music on a loop was a “form of torture” to the area’s homeless population.
A homeless man living near the Graham Bricknell Music Shell told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that “Hot Potato” was “going around and around in my head” for two days.
While Miguel said the city did not intend to provoke homeless people, he said he hopes to use the publicity to gather state funding for affordable housing.
“It might give us an opportunity to further lobby and to advocate to our state government for that support that we need down here,” Miguel said.
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