‘I was listening to an ABC Radio National broadcast on AM 576 on Thursday 22 October about poverty in Australia …

Unfortunately not been able to locate an audio or article

However, there are numerous reports concerning POVERTY IN AUSTRALIA … more than 3 MILLION Australians are living below the Poverty Line!

–Anglicare has found there are 106 job seekers for every entry level job!

–Foodbank Australia Report 2020 found we have not yet reached peak hunger in the Covid-19 Crisis

View:

https://antipovertyweek.org.au/

THIS is what is happening in contrast to the continuing reports of excess and rorts … corruption …

ACCORDING to the latest figures from the charitable sector e.g. FOODBANK more than 800,000 people in Australia are going hungry and have sought assistance in recent weeks.

Charities are at crisis levels, they are struggling as never before.

Meanwhile there are a host of ideologs and others calling for more migrants; that things are stagnating without them.

If we ever had doubts about the accuracy of this argument surely it is now!

Let’s test the idea migration is driver of all good and growth and more growth …

Are we accounting for all the cost of:

-overseas staff and local staff
-interviews and assessment by Australian officials?

-transportation, initial accommodation
-liaison, orientation, language classes
-assistance provided at various levels

Ok they pay fees, thousands of dollars but it costs thousands for the process to take place

Ok it employs a lot of people and it’s become an industry with clout, maybe this is a reason why the pollies see it as synonymous with eternal growth!

-the Migration Alliance has more than 4000 members (of migration agents) to muscle

SO what to do about this?

We could be smart, or we could stick with ideological driven practices of the past.

But unlike the past Australia is faced with circumstances never experienced before!

At this time in the short modern history of this land we have:

–drought or at best post drought conditions
-post bush fire conditions
-more frequent effects of climate change

–a Pandemic

–a Recession

-trade tensions instigated by a totalitarian nation that is the biggest player in our region
-higher unemployment
-over stretched charities

The list goes on …

And our politicians vote to give subsidies to businesses to employ younger workers

.to promote a false reality of equality when their ‘recovery’ package is largely directed to assisting those industries overwhelmingly dominated by male workers

(their defensive response is women can drive on the roads and so on, it’s so pathetic and patronising)

So given we have some understanding of how things are really happening out there, in the streets, in the suburbs, in the towns and in the countryside opportunities could exist to do things differently!

What is needed … a bit of creativity would help.

IT is about future proofing

Why can’t we. as a nation have (not in any order). and there’s plenty more good ideas out there, by no means an extensive list here but worth considering…

-a post office bank to offer real competition to the big 4 banks

-community (public) housing, from land acquisition to construction to management and use

-communities with small to medium scale solar and wind farm power generation all over the country (as elsewhere)

-community based general recycling plants and waste water recycling

-space allocated for community gardens

–electric vehicle recharging networks integrated to solar and wind power generation

-national policies and funding to eliminate all sorts of road intersections to save on emissions and improve efficiencies

-tackle risk and ameliorate coastal erosion and shoreline inundation with ongoing programs that relocate infrastructure, build more resilient landscapes and bolster the built environment defences needed with the effects of climate change,. e.g. taking as much as possible of the electricity network underground

–nation-wide reforestation/salt reduction programs

-repurpose all sorts of materials and resources so that waste is a mere shadow of what it is now

And a lot more…

Why is it so hard, so readily ridiculed, that the only way to see progress is persisting with the concept of the growth economy when it is known it is a falsehood!‘