A city council in Western Australia is facing a backlash after deploying the Wiggles to deter homeless people. The council in Bunbury has admitted that it has been playing the popular children's band's song "Hot Potato" on a loop at a bandshell to discourage homeless people from sleeping or congregating there. In a statement to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, a spokesman for the band said this is definitely not how the band wants their music to be used. "The Wiggles' music is created to bring joy and happiness to children and families around the world," he said. "We are deeply disappointed to hear that it is being used in any other way."
WAtoday reports that the band has asked the council to stop using the song at the waterfront bandshell, which has often served as a shelter over the last decade. In a statement, Bunbury Mayor Jaysen de San Miguel defended the use of the song, saying many places use looped music as a way of "discouraging people to congregate permanently in an area and to deter antisocial behavior." He said music had been played at the site for six months and it wasn't a problem until Wednesday, when somebody broke into a control box "and turned the volume of the music right up."
This isn't the first time the city has used music to try to drive people away from the bandshell, the Washington Post reports. In 2016, it was Peter Allen's "I Go to Rio" that played on a loop. John Carey, the state's minister for housing and homelessness, said Bunbury should find a better way to deal with some of society's most vulnerable people. "Many local governments work proactively with the state and look at ways and measures to transition people out of rough sleeping," he said, per WAtoday. (More Australia stories.)
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