The incoming government made a big song and dance about cutting the ‘waste and rorts’ when they took office. But the people of New England have a right to ask: are we being targeted for funding cuts because it’s easy to paint our local member as the villain?
Scott Morrison was the villain of the previous government. He was the one who undermined our democracy, violating the very principles of responsible government, and lied to all and sundry about everything. Yet, throughout the last election campaign all we heard was ‘if you vote for (insert Liberal Party candidate name here), you get Barnaby’. The member for New England was effectively turned into an electoral boogeyman, and no one cared about the truth.
Those city based “leaders”, whether Labor, Green, or Teal, did not give two flying fiestas what that kind of targeted social shaming did to the people of New England. They just knew the line resonated in their inner city electorates, and went with it. They didn’t care about the abuse New Englanders got online, or what it felt like to have friends and family ring you up and abuse you, because ‘Barnaby’.
Being Jewish, I know what it is like to be held personally liable for a country I’m not a citizen of. And there are a great deal of parallels between the Israel/Jew = same/same treatment and the New Englander/Barnaby supporter = same/same nonsense that so many of us have had to endure in very real ways in recent years.
The allegations and insinuations that everyone who lives in the New England is stupid, uneducated, opposes climate change, is corrupt, and all the other insults are hard to stomach. Especially in Armidale, which has more people with extensive higher education than you can poke a forky stick at and a great deal of them have been working on climate science before our condescending city candidates had even heard the words ‘global warming’.
Like most good country people, we just put up with it and get on with the job. But when that desire to punish Barnaby extends to policy, budget decisions, and the very real consequences on the life of New Englanders, we need to say stop.
So when $30 million is cut from New England roads, from just one program, and then you read that funding has either been cut or not granted to many important local projects that were to be funded under the Building Better Regions Fund that was scrapped entirely… you need to ask the question: are we being targeted? It certainly feels like it.
Inverell and Tamworth pools don’t get to vote for Barnaby or not, but they’ve been denied the funding they need to provide decent swimming facilities. Homes North is an amazingly important charity providing much needed social housing, but they didn’t get the needed funding to refurbish the old Centrelink office into their new community services hub. And the New England Regional Art Museum has been denied funding for the Howard Hinton display… I thought Labor was all about supporting the arts? And there’s probably $300m worth of work that needs to be done urgently on the New England Highway, even before the flood damage, so cutting $30m just to deliver ‘budget savings’ is absolutely not ok.
It is not ok for the New England to be punished because y’all don’t like Barnaby. Especially when there are literally no other candidates on the ballot one could vote for in good conscience. I have been writing against Barnaby since he was a Senator for Queensland, and even I had to (take a big slug of bourbon and then) admit that in 2022 he was the only viable candidate on the ballot. I’m sorry, mediocre nobodies who can’t remember their party issued sound bites or anti-establishment anti-vaxxers are not appropriate to be representatives of this great area. Neither is Barnaby, but at least he’s not of questionable sanity, and he does, I have to begrudgingly admit, get the job done.
Cutting waste is fine, but I don’t see any waste in the ever growing list of cuts to the New England trickling out in the detail of the October budget. This is not being economically responsible: it’s just petty.