My Place Australia (MPA) is a growing movement in Australia. Recently the Guardian carried an article on this new sovereign citizen movement.

My own contact with the movement has been indirect. Initially, I noticed an acquaintance taking a strong anti-vaccination stand during the peak Covid period. Later the same person expressed concerns about The 15 minute city idea. After a little consideration I concluded that the person concerned was not deeply acquainted with some of the issues, but attracted to notions of sovereign citizenship.

This notion of citizenship tends to dispute the function of our system of governance, laws, production, distribution and exchange, to the point where followers see present arrangements as inimical to their desired life outcomes.

Understandably the Australian Federal Police take an interest in the sovereign citizenship movement.

A press conference in Gosford

Back to my own attempt to understand what I’d encountered.

I remained uncertain about the origin of my acquaintance’s theories. Later I attended a press conference in Gosford called by the NSW Government in tandem with University of Newcastle to announce the provision of new tertiary study facilities in Gosford. It was here, on the sideline of the event, I was told about the difficulties Council was facing from people who regarded the 15 minute city idea as an infringement of their sovereign rights as citizens.

Learning about My Place Australia (MPA)

Now to the Guardian article. Last week I found Eden Gillespie‘s piece:
My Place groups worry about 5G and chemtrails. Some are also taking an interest in Queensland’s council elections.

Digging a little deeper I found an ABC article from 4 Apr 2023 by Emily Baker: Anti-vax group My Place is pushing to take ‘control of council decisions’

These provided a more detail on a movement that now has 100 groups spread throughout Australia.

Where are they active and what are they saying?

The articles from The Guardian and ABC News outline the activities of MPA as a movement which has been engaged in an attempt to influence local council elections in Australia.

The articles claim that MPA advocates against 5G communications networks, believes in the chemtrail conspiracy, the addition of fluoride to water supplies, and aligns with sundry additional conspiracy theories.

The articles quote sources claiming MPA is actively attempting to install their members in local government positions so as to advocate for these issues from a position of power. They are organising at a grassroots level, using a network across Australia to recruit and coordinate members.

The group’s operation includes the promotion of what MPA terms a “Positive Culture Agreement” and a defined “Mission Statement” to guide their activities, signaling a structured approach to their advocacy and political involvement.

The group’s strategic focus is on local council elections so as to influence policies at a level where there might be less competition but a greater opportunity to effect changes aligning with their beliefs.

For more I went to the MPA website and a video by Darren Bergwerf

A Short Summary of Darren Bergwerf’s Video

Darren Bergwerf introduces MPA in the video My Australia What Is It?
In it he sets out the organization’s goals for new and prospective members. He describes MPA as an educational, health and wellness, and community support network seeking to establish independent local communities across Australia.

What follows is a summary drawn from the transcript of a 20 minute video My Australia What Is It? outlining MPA’s core activities:

1. Community Engagement
   Local groups attend council meetings to hold officials accountable, informing the community about council actions.
2. Health and Wellness
   Focused on natural remedies and traditional medicines, this group advocates for alternatives to mainstream pharmaceutical solutions.
   “We also have a Health and Wellness group” its purpose is “to go out and find information on their particular field and the health and Wellness . . . like Chinese medicines and . . . also natural remedies for all the elements that we have because we are trying to disengage and move away from the Pharmaceutical industry and the pharmaceuticals are keeping us sick and we need to get back to natural remedies so that goes along with the mental health the spiritual health and there’s all different aspects to our health”
3. Food Sourcing
   This involves connecting with local producers to foster food security and support local economies by reducing reliance on major supermarkets.
4. Education
   Revising community education to focus on practical, life-oriented learning rather than traditional schooling.
   The assertion is that our education system is broken, that they are not teaching our children or us and they never have what we need to know about life and how to survive in this world.
   “We are turning back the clock and re-educating ourselves and that’s a big part of what my place Australia is. It’s re-education of a nation . . . and also putting unity back into community. So the fact that we don’t have the knowledge about all of this stuff and this knowledge is being kept from us for decades and the only way we can take back control and power ourselves to be alone leaders in our own right and stop following and relying on other people to give us information because we’re not getting the information that we need and we need to educate ourselves and that’s the purpose of these groups, is to educate our own community on all these different aspects.”
5. Media and Communication
   My Place Australia plans to create its own news network to promote positive community activities and counteract negative media portrayals.

Darren emphasizes the growth of community groups, which might start small but can rapidly expand, demonstrating a significant interest in their initiatives. The organization holds fortnightly Zoom meetings to discuss community issues and strategies for growth.

MPA’s aim is to create self-sustaining communities that operate independently of conventional systems, embodying a grassroots movement towards self-reliance and empowerment. This includes setting up private members associations with their own rules and governance structures outside the public system.

An Overview of Darren Bergwerf’s Agenda

It seems Darren’s political interests extend beyond the Local Government arena to the Federal sphere. In the March 2024 Darren ran as an independent in the Dunkley By-Election.

In the by-election he drew 4.7% of the votes.

More interesting than the result are his stated policies. As a life long educator with Local, State, National and International experience I found his plans for the future of education most disquieting. I’ll post them here as I suspect the website will soon be unavailable.

Overhaul curriculum – total restructure

​The current curriculum is not only influenced by parties with vested interests and financial incentives, but is also outdated and in need of an overhaul. We would work on programs that can be updated regularly based on new and emerging technologies, financial systems and laws. Smaller classes, and relevant Curriculum that needs to go back to Reading, Writing, Math, History, Geography, the physiology of Biology, Extensive Home Economics, and basic Trades (Not withstanding the inclusion of new Technologies) increasing the knowledge and fine motor skills of our children, once again. Inclusive, of course, of all level of abilities/disabilities. Then notwithstanding the teaching of a fundamental respect for  Humanity/each other and Patriotism for Australia.

The other main concern is the re-education of all teaching staff, back to an inquiring and questioning curriculum so that our children are taught to question and not just be spoon fed the answers/indoctrinated. Away from the agenda driven schooling.

Costs are much too high and will need to be reduced to lower the ongoing burden on families and single parents. The world is far more complicated and the current curriculum does not give relative information to suit the complexities of today’s society. We need to bring this up to speed. We will raise the wages for teachers and have ongoing training to keep teachers up to date in their field.

I don’t reject everything he had in mind for educational reform, some of it is obvious for example more focus on new and emerging technologies, financial systems and laws. Smaller classes, and relevant Curriculum with more emphasis on History, Geography, and Biology. Unfortunately, there is a lot more I regard as inimical to sound 21st century educational outcomes for students in a globally connected Australia.