'Haves' Vs the 'have nots' Comment by John Carter The Land (Newspaper) 16 March 2000 ========================================================== Australia has built a dangerous earthquake fault along the Great Dividing Range with the "haves" on the coast telling the "have nots" inland how to run their business. The Prime 'Minister's recent foray into rural towns served to heighten the schism. He, his Coalition partner and his fellow talkback radio devotee, Kim Beazley are headed for a bigger electoral surprise from the inland than the Victorian election gave. The native vegetation and water use guidelines are building on Native Title, poverty and the Goods and Services Tax to produce a level of resentment in rural Australia previously unseen. The cocktail has the potential to join the Eureka Stockade as a defining act in our short history. "Property is the pivot of civilisation" as Samson wrote in 1930. When people's property is threatened, history has a dark record. Most Australians are remote from the land. They live in cities and read and watch the efforts of city journalists. They echo the Prime Minister's talk of "a golden financial age". Most journalists seem to have a 19th century attitude to "wealthy squatters" - a mythical race who left the planet more than 50 years ago. These journalists also reflect a plant xenophobia to any rural introduction of exotic species of trees, pastures etc. Exotics are fine in urban gardens - but not inland. The inland is almost seen as a museum to illustrate the year 1770 with those living in it paying for its upkeep and at the same time providing cheap food and fibre for the city folk. There is a perception in the city that Aborigines are the only people who have a deep spiritual affinity with land. Many accept that rural landholders should give land back, but that urban waterfronts are exempt. The recent poll comprehensively rejecting the Reconciliation agenda and saying "sorry" is an indication that city journalists reflect their own thinking rather than that of the urban community. People with such beliefs should read history. They should look at Kosovo, read "Gone with the Wind" and O'Hara's advice to Scarlet -"Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything - for it is the only thing that lasts - and don't you forget it". Gerald O'Hara wasn't an Indian. There is an old Chinese proverb that says "Give a man the title to an acre of wilderness and he will make a beautiful garden. Restrict the right and he will turn a garden into a wilderness'. Nobody who understands the huge diversity of soil type, local rainfall and micro climates could suggest some of the blanket-type guidelines now being advocated. City people should understand that most holdings are, in effect, private research stations with managers learning from nature and their own input to that environment. Most of Australia's advances in production have come from ideas of private individuals - not scientists. We must change urban attitudes to match those in US and EU. Hopefully the ballot box will be the means of bringing some sanity to urban media and Governmental attitude to the inland. ---------------------------------------------------------------- This is the Neither public email list, open for the public and general discussion. To unsubscribe click here Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=unsubscribe To subscribe click here Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=subscribe For information on [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.neither.org/lists/public-list.htm For archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
