Struggle Street: local councils refuse permits for SBS documentary to film

Makers of divisive SBS documentary Struggle Street are facing their own uphill battle, with several Victorian councils refusing to allow the show’s cameras into their neighbourhoods.

Melton, Hume, Maribyrnong and Brimbank councils have blocked filming applications by production company Keo Films, fearing the second series of the program would further stigmatise particular suburbs and cause long-term harm to communities.

The first series, filmed around Mount Druitt in Sydney’s west, was dogged by controversy, with some detractors accusing SBS of promoting “poverty porn”.

SBS has said the second series will “shine a light on social and economic disadvantage in Australia” through individual, and community stories – and continue to spark a national conversation started by series one.

However, not everyone — including Hume City Council, which turned down an application to film in Broadmeadows — agrees with the show’s style.

“I’m really disappointed in this day and age that we’re using human beings for someone else’s entertainment,” said Hume Mayor Helen Patsikatheodorou.

She said Broadmeadows, which in the past had been neglected by governments, was making strides in the right direction.

“We want to go forward. We don’t want to go back, I think what’s what Struggle Street would be. It would take us back again.

“We hope that they (the makers) don’t go behind our backs because we’re going to be left with the legacy of what they leave behind.”

Keo Films did not respond to Fairfax Media’s inquiries.

Other councils, such as Frankston City Council, appear unlikely to welcome the controversial show with open arms.

Frankston Mayor James Dooley said to his knowledge, his council had not received any application from Struggle Street’s makers.

“If they did I’d tell them to go and get stuffed. It’s not constructive,” he said.

“If I saw some serious attempt to talk about some of the issues, I might be sympathetic.

(But) what you see is people at their worst, in a way they don’t want to be remembered.”

A bid to film in another traditionally disadvantaged suburb, Braybrook, was given short shrift by Maribyrnong City Council.

In a statement, council chief executive Stephen Wall said that the council had denied the permit “due to the manner in which the producers portrayed suburbs, residents and disadvantage in the first series”.

“It is our strong belief that this production will not present the City of Maribyrnong in a favourable light – but depict it as place of disadvantage and poverty,” he said. “This is the very light that we – and our residents – fight so hard to overcome and defy.”

Mr Wall said the council also believed that the area would be depicted in line with stereotypes of Melbourne’s west, “completely ignorant to the level of speed and social change occurring in our city”.

SBS has said the second series would be filmed in Queensland and Victoria but has stressed that it was “not a series about specific areas of the country”.

“First and foremost this is a series about the issues of hardship that people and communities can find themselves in for a whole range of reasons,” a spokesperson said.

“The issues faced by these people and communities are representative of issues faced by people and communities across Australia.”

The series, wherever it ends up being filmed, is due to air in late 2017.