Opinion
The Prime Minister was heckled by a protester representing the group Rising Tide at a Labour campaign launch to address youth mental health on 8th April, 2025. The audio of the incident, indicated how passionate the protester was, expressing herself to the point of being hysterical.
Since getting elected your government has approved 33 new coal and gas projects… (Unclear) Your people have made climate change… (Unclear) Poor mental health issues … (Unclear) Young people.
Protester at Anthony Albanese’s Youth Mental Health launch 8 April, 2025.
The protester said that since the government had been elected, it had approved 33 coal and gas projects and was responsible for young people’s poor mental health. Yes, the scene was uncomfortable for the attendees, and people are entitled to make their statements with a sense of decorum. This was not the first ambush protest in this election campaign, but it highlights a glaring problem in this election. Neither party has sought to find out what issues Australians are interested in seeing addressed by those they expect to elect. The parties are instead blinded by their own echo chambers and campaign on issues that are important, but on an agenda that is not driven by electors. Do the parties want this election to be an election with no electors?
Everyday the parties are in the news. The campaign rolls on until Election Day when we cast our votes. The earnest issues discussed by each leader amount to hyperbole, exaggerated alleged misdeeds of the other and prattling on about policies that have little challenge or contention in the electorate. There is no courage shown from either side. No new path showing ambition above moribund politics, and repeats of old arguments on the economy, China or any other straw man argument to provide a distraction. Maybe it is our fault as electors, we don’t reward brave politicians that are forward looking with courageous policies. As any person who has viewed ‘Yes Minister’ knows, the word brave has strong connotations of being fool hardy and heading for a shortened political career.
Neither of our two incumbent members for Gippsland has addressed the issues we face. Gippsland Member, Darren Chester and Monash Member, Russell Broadbent, to date, have made no statements that will further progress the path in Gippsland. Our issues are not unique either, nor are they unknown. Let’s take a look, but before we do, I just want to remind you that these issues are not the exclusive domain of the federal government.
Homelessness and Affordable Housing
Housing has been a problem for a long time, just that due to inaction or inappropriate action, it is now crunch time. The lack of action for many years is now having real, detrimental effects to people’s live and the ongoing development of our economic wealth.
In all my life living in Gippsland, I have never witnessed obvious homelessness. The accounts of local agencies that deal with homelessness, for many years, have said it was always there, but hidden. No more. In the town of Moe, where I live, when you go shopping, you will see people taking shelter wherever they can to pass the day and ease their troubles. Tents have appeared in discrete places, along the highway and in parks. A caravan was parked on the street with a person living in it and periodically moved. People don’t make these choices.
There is a long list of reports indicating the poor housing situation, availability and affordability in Gippsland for many years. Councils have failed to ensure a variety of housing is available for people to use. Councils are obsessed with single family homes, but residents are also equally complicit. A variety of housing is needed to address a population that is not only a nuclear family.
Affordability has been an ongoing problem. If a bank deems that it is only safe to lend to one-third of a person’s income, how can rent be considered affordable if it is more than that? If a person wants to save for the great Australian dream of owning their own home, how will that be possible, if a person is to save, pay exorbitant rent and live a modest life?
For those who can manage to pay the rent on limited income, their choice of home selected from the lowest price rentals would dismay a person of average means. This housing is barely fit for habitation. It often has poor upkeep, poor plumbing, poor heating and climate control, leading to further stress and financial burdens. Many homes offered for rent in the cheapest category are barely fit for habitation.
Gippsland economic transition from coal-based industry
For a long time, the foolish bulwark to Gippsland’s economic future was and still prevalent, was to deny that the coal fired power stations will be closed as we adjust to a decarbonized economy. Unions, local councils, residents and politicians vociferously denied that this needed to be done. Our wealth was sourced from those big holes in the ground. We were not responsible for, nor should we have take into account what the consequences of our ongoing actions would be, if we ignored our carbon pollution. The wheel has slowly turned, but not quite fully. We are finally starting to take responsibility.
Let us be sure of one thing. It is an immense source of pride to think of what we have provided to the state of Victoria and Australia as a whole from collectively working together. The coal mines, the power stations, the transmission facilities, the loss of farmland and the flourishing of our towns. It has been one exceptional ride. We have welcomed immigrants from around the world and shared the wealth that our exploitation of the coal mines has produced with our hands. We also unwittingly shared the downside as well. The pollution that has poisoned our air, water and soil.
Today, we must address a new reality, and the lack of support is tangibly absent. For Gippsland to transition from our coal-based industry, we need help, and it is not forthcoming.
In my lifetime, I have witnessed and been part of several industries in Gippsland that have had to change and adjust to economic realities. The textile, clothing and footwear industry was once a part of the Gippsland economy and thrived behind protective barriers. It is now defunct, despite Australia growing wool and cotton, and having labour to transform those materials. When the manufacturer of Bonds transferred their underwear manufacturing facility to China, to produce cheaper clothing, 10 years later we could purchase the same item for the same price as when it was made in Australia. I struggle to see how Australians on balance, benefited.
The dairy industry in which I have spent my working life has been in a constant turmoil of change for much of forty years. Many Gippsland town economies were underpinned by dairy farmers. Dairying was a cultural and social underpinning of many communities. Each wave of adjustment slowly disintegrated the former dairy communities. For 40 years, the exit of dairy farmers, their families and the communities with them, declined to where we are today. Some of the changes resulted from radical events such as the rapid exits of farmers responding to the mid seventies drought and the entrance of Britain into the common market. Other changes occurred after orderly planning, such as the Milk Levy from the early 2000s which financed farmers to adjust to the free marketing of milk in Australia.
Our denial that we were going to change to a decarbonized economy has done us no favors, nor have we seen anything concrete to help assist Gippsland communities to change and thrive in this new realm. In this election, the Liberals promise a nuclear power station for an area that has fully allocated water and is desperate for well-paying jobs, fully aware the proposal is not well thought out and will leave Gippsland with a new unwanted legacy of being a nuclear waste dump. The Labor party has no concrete plans for Gippsland, we will fend for ourselves.
The sitting members have done nothing to advance the future of Gippsland. Though they have served us well, the truth is Gippsland needs some fundamental action.
Gippsland needs a concrete transition plan. It needs future employment opportunities mapped and built, not promised. We have seen endless proposals evaporate. A hopeful future dismissed and cast away too often. It needs a real commitment, not a politicians promise. We have skilled people, leaders and even great politicians and people who have a sense of pride in Gippsland, of our history and our future.
We are electors, speak for us and listen to us. Yes, it is difficult and there is a time and a place for everything. The time for politics is gone; we are too tired to care for that, though that is the nature of your job.
Radio Southern Skies 