I just got off the phone from speaking with a friend for 2 hours. She is from the bush. Her son, a farmer, committed suicide. He left behind a wife and heartbroken children.
The last of his breeding cattle went to the saleyards and the SPCA said that they were too poorly to be sold. Take them home and fatten them up.
How? He has no money to buy fodder.
He loaded them back on the truck, took them home and shot them. Then killed his dogs, his chickens and his cat and then shot himself.
His wife and children were out….
His family returned to see the carnage. Faced with the horror of life after death on this earth and all thanks to an uncaring State Government, an uncaring Federal Government and fools in the leafy suburbs who have no comprehension what is going on the in" the bush " , lives are fragmented and the pieces being picked up - no thanks to the Government.
And what will the Politicians say to this?
NOTHING, NOTHING and more NOTHING.
Offering help packages that no struggling farmer can hope to be eligible for; counselling ? If someone is losing their home, their livelihood and their dignity, how the hell is counselling going to put food on the table and fodder in the bellies of your stock?
Why in God’s name are our young fathers, farmers and strong men killing themselves every day?
Why?
Because they have no hope. Oh sure, someone can tell you to learn coping mechanisms where dealing with adversity is concerned. Some counsellor can smile indulgently, offer a pamphlet and a one hour session on how to feel good about being the person who ended over 100 years of farm ownership… but come on, seriously, what words can be said to heal the years of fighting and working everyday and failing at every step and every point and then, reaching the point of total humiliation – be told by animal cruelty prevention to go home and feed your dying stock – no wonder he snapped.
I am so disgusted, so angry, so bereft of adjectives right now.
I genuinely do not know what to say.
Our Governments, Federal and State, are selling our SOULS – yes, our souls – to China.
In the meantime, our farming and rural sectors are not only dying; they are being slaughtered by an uncaring group of Politicians who care more about votes than the welfare of Australians in the bush. And our Agriculture Minister Ms MacKenzie is still smiling?
Our Morrison Government is a dreadful failure. Too concerned about importing more people when we cannot feed those we already have. We cannot house those we already have. We cannot cope with those we already have.
According them, if the books look good, then our country is good.
Well, it is NOT GOOD.
It is, and I will use the word quite deliberately, CATASTROPHIC.
What is happening to our farmers is a catastrophe and this bandied about word is losing its potency because Canberra and the States love to catastrophise everything – if it suits their goal.
One more family is weeping because their votes didn’t matter. Yes, that is as brutal as I can put it.
Our voices may rage and cry and howl in the agony of loss but they are merely shrill sounds in the wind by the time they drift on a breeze to Canberra.
And, even if they reach that far, they will still be whispers and lost in the wind of climate change, Gay and Lesbian Rights, transgender and refugee equality and the Indigenous call for apologies for being here in the first place.
As a white, heterosexual bushie woman I lament the passing of good men to suicide and the grief of the families left behind to pick up the pieces of a broken system where the straw that broke the camels back was a Government that simply didn’t and does not care.
When our farmers – and our volunteer firefighters – work their guts out for no reward and then get kicked again and again until they fall on the ground in utter defeat – when this happens, we are a Nation without a Soul.
When aid is offered under the guise of kindness yet is impossible to access by those who need it, it is not an act of kindness. It is an act of cruelty.
No better than taunting a starving animal with a bail of hay that is always just out of reach.
I personally find it disgusting and abhorrent that a young father and farmer, a young husband has joined so many who cannot cope and we are paying for a penis reconstruction surgery for a non Australian.
Go figure.
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