Vikki Campion: Politicians need to spend more time in regional Australia
Politicians with zero understanding of country life should be forced to move — and work — in regional Australia, Vikki Campion writes, adding that some of our leaders don’t understand how to manage the country because they have never been there.
Opinion
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We have very little coronavirus in the bush, so instead of shutting parliament down, why don’t we hold it here?
When my pregnant mates out west give birth they have a choice: a four-hour commute to a regional hospital or chancing it with a two-hour drive to a small clinic.
Many rural mums book in for planned C-sections in Sydney just so they know they have doctors at hand.
It’s a reality of country life; we don’t have enough medical experts.
In our so-called “bush capital” of Canberra, my son Sebastian had full scans by 10 weeks in utero, and every appointment was easy to get, but in the country Thomas was nearly 18 weeks along before we could get in.
Backlogs of people with serious injuries, broken hips and necks, took precedence. Appointments were cancelled when both our radiologists fell sick. When I realised my child could easily be born without a scan, I went on a four-hour road trip.
Immediately the scans leaked to the media and I was papped again with another big belly — but Tom was healthy and that’s all we cared about.
So I had to laugh recently when I heard politicians whining about women who had to drive an hour for obstetrics in Canberra.
You ought to see how the other half live. And this is the problem with our federal parliament — some of our leaders don’t understand how to manage the country because they have never been there.
As much as I got smile lines when inevitably some urban pollie who had never been further west than Marrickville rocked up to a bush press conference in a brand new Akubra and shiny-stiff RMs, we need a government who comes to regional Australia for more than a photo op.
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Right now, parliament is cancelled, the backlog of legislation grows, and we are at risk of having not a Prime Minister but an emperor.
The executive are unchallenged and unscrutinised by the Opposition and the backbench. We seem to have this perverse dilemma that if there can’t be parliament in Canberra (because Victorians can’t go) then there is no parliament. It’s like saying that if there is no dining room, there is no eating.
How is it that the same people who are smart enough to take the country to war and manage in excess of $700 billion in debt can’t get fewer than 230 people in one spot to vote?
A regional parliament would allow locked-down politicians to travel a reasonable distance for “work purposes”.
They would have to ditch the BMW and the chauffeur and drive themselves — but we are making sacrifices.
A regional parliament of tested-and-cleared politicians would show them the roads we actually drive on and the mobile reception we (don’t) really get. It’s where there’s no airport and no Uber, but strangers will help carry your post as you juggle shopping, two toddlers and a pram that won’t wheel straight.
As the bush has no bond with parliament, some MPs have never stepped foot in a country town and have no clue how the legislation they handle hurts or helps.
We need this because city MPs outnumber bush MPs and always will. If they came they would see the almost perfect discorrelation between nature’s beauty and public service.
If we follow the same guidelines that have kept Bunnings in business, then why can’t we keep the Australian parliament open?
Socially distanced voting could be done in any regional community centre and the local chamber of commerce could celebrate more than $600,000 from a typical sitting in travel allowance alone.
We can’t keep Australia’s lawmaking body tucked in tightly under the doona while there is work to be done.
It’s a reality of our geography and emblematic in our culture that we believe in the bush but it is an overused part of the Australian lexicon — for too many the bush remains a place spoken of but never visited.
* Vikki Campion is an adviser to Federal Nationals MP and Deputy speaker Llew O’Brien