editorial Welcome to this week’s editorial, Like most homes across the region our le5er box is brimming with elec7oneering pamphlets that promise the world. “Vote for me and I will do this”, “Vote for me and I will double what the other lot are promising”, “Vote for me because you can’t trust anyone else” and best yet, “Vote for me because I have a proven record of delivering”. At its heart the elec7on is about what is wrong with the present and how, vo7ng for someone, some party, the issues we face will be recognised, a solu7on and funding found, and then delivered. Wouldn’t that be nice, in a perfect world. From birth to death our rural and regional communi7es have a some very real problems that no end of promises appear capable of fixing. Our midwives are overworked and underpaid. There are too few of them, and their numbers decrease as their stress builds. Regional obstetricians are as rare as hen’s teeth, and paediatricians more so. Next come childcare facili7es and vacancies. The high demand is there but the spaces are not. While the costs are virtually unaffordable, the desperate need for a second income to pay soaring costs sees families suckered in to the mire. Surely there must be a be5er way. Without doubt we are heading to a collapse if this con7nues. Something has to give. Most likely it will be our expecta7ons that quality mothering and baby care should be available to everyone. One wonders when was it that we begin to accept less? Next comes educa7on. So far our kids have been treated reasonably equally in child care but now the societal divide kicks in where the choice is made between Private and Public school. Parents are in a quandary as they see private schools receive extraordinary governmental assistance to ensure teacher ra7os and provide quality resources. Mean7me the public schools, try as they might, get by on the smell of an oily rag with underpaid teachers working over7me to deliver the best they can, driven by their professional passion and commitment. With the rise in dispropor7on our educa7on system has become unbalanced and we are heading to an Us and Them. When did it become acceptable that public educa7on be des7ned to be underfunded, under resourced, and become second 7er? Are we becoming the Stupid Country? Then there is ter7ary educa7on. In recent years it has faced its own hurdles with cost blowouts, priva7sa7on, funding stripped and curriculums dumbed down to accommodate more students so that the budget bo5om lines are less affected. As a na7on we have lost our momentum of being the smart country and finding a tradesperson has become a challenge as fewer students go on to study reducing the pool, and increasing the gaps in being able to service community needs. This segues to aged care. Now we, as a na7on, need to accept that we have dropped the ball on aged care. What was once a dignified endplay for life has become a horror for so many who are living in fear that there are not the resources to provide even a reasonable expecta7on of care. Ask any Baby Boomer of their fear of growing old and infirmed and the response is usually one of dread and uncertainty. But none of the elec7oneering promises are dealing with the underbelly. No one is prepared to say they are responsible for what we now have and no-one is offering the detailed pathways to delivering the improvements needed. Our collec7ve needs are basic. Affordable houses where we can live as healthy families, supported by a diversity of health providers, able to service most of our needs, from birth to death. All we need is a quality universal educa7on system where all children are treated equally, with adequate staffing, facili7es and resources and that each child has the opportunity, rich or poor, to a5end to their ter7ary studies. And finally, and not unreasonably, we might have a respecFul end of life that enables us to live in dignity where the basic resources of 7mely, quality care are met. Those elec7oneering our mailboxes are saying “Vote for us because we are listening”. But are they. Have they? When you drill down and look at the buzz words, the spin, the motherhood statements and the waffle you realise that there isn’t any evidence of an understanding of the actual, real needs and expecta7ons of you and I. It is all about them. When you look for detail it is found wan7ng. “Best not promise too much. Keep it light and fluffy. Tell them how bad the others are. Buzz Words, Slogans, it works every 7me.” And we are leJ exactly where we started, wondering when the small details will be recognised and acted on, and wonder why they aren’t, and wonder why they won’t be. Un7l next—lei beagle weekly : Vol 258 May 6th 2022
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