Our charity's ugly face

AUSTRALIA'S increasingly selective compassion reveals an ugliness behind our 'charity'.

THE Burrumbuttock Hay Runners' huge convoy of around 250 prime movers and 400 trailers complete their 1860km run hauling $6 million worth of hay to Ilfracombe, east of Longreach. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

IN THE face of natural disaster, both here and abroad, it's been disappointing to witness this past few weeks an ugliness seeping into social media platforms that seems to corral those worthy of our assistance on the basis of race.

The attack on foreign aid has assumed an 'either-or' mentality that seeks to deny that a wealthy country like Australia should have the capacity to care both for its own and others.

The suggestion is that foreign aid to our neighbours and provision of the measly support afforded refugees on our island gulags, is stealing food from the mouths of desperate farmers facing drought across NSW and Queensland.

Those who mindlessly either tick a 'like' to such nonsense or extend their engagement to re-enforcing posts of their own, show their true colours while contributing to the main streaming of attitudes that are simply shameful.

Outgoing Race Commissioner Tim Southphommasane leaves his tenure warning that race politics is back in Australia, a reality allowed by attitudes that persist at an unhealthy level across the country.

Mr Southphommasane has been particularly troubled by the enthusiasm of politicians to use race to garner votes, and in the process stirring up even greater social division.

He says common terms in the social media and political discourse such as 'mainstream Australia' and 'middle Australian values' thinly mask racist mindsets.

We are also seeing side-tracked attempts to run a genuine debate about population and whether Australia should have a clear policy based on scientific research that determines the positives and disadvantages of continuing on our current course.

What should be a thoughtful discussion supported by balanced analysis has instead become the battleground of those who would exclude some on the basis of race and nationality and by refugee advocates given over to a fear the first to be excluded would be those most in need of our help.

On that score worryingly those advocates may be right if comments I've seen on social media this week criticising Foreign Minister Julie Bishop for offering aid to victims of Lombok's earthquake are any indication.

VILLAGERS walk near destroyed homes in an area affected by the early morning earthquake at Sajang village, Sembalun, East Lombok, Indonesia, on July 29, 2018. The death toll has reached 380 and is still rising. Picture: Rosidin

The keyboard warriors of social media have formed the view that any assistance to those hapless souls robs our rural communities of resources they need in the face of one of the worst droughts since the 1960s.

The suggestion Australia is not capable of doing both I fear is less fuelled by ignorance of that capacity and more a matter of a 'stuff them' to anyone of different race, religion or colour.

Those views are informed by a fear - long exploited by politicians - that someone is going to take our cherished lifestyle from us.

Hearts hardened to the plight of refugees by their labelling by politicians as criminals, queue jumpers and illegals, have increasingly lost the ability to show empathy to fellow human beings now living in the stench of death and destruction just to the north of us.

The true scale of the loss of life and injury on Lombok will have become increasingly apparent by the time these thoughts go to Press. It is sincerely hoped greater appreciation of the misery at play will increase awareness that all nations, including our own, need to do more and quickly to provide support.

The irony in the emergence of accentuated racial division both here and in other parts of the world is that looming global catastrophe will render such concepts irrelevant as we all increasingly become refugees seeking nothing more than higher ground.

The appearance of a neo-Nazi on national television this past week is no less ugly than the continued accommodation of views that deny the looming impacts of climate change.

Both sets of opinion lead nowhere, enable destructive behaviour whether it be segregation on the basis of colour and race or the location of ever more people in vulnerable places, and misdirect discourse from the very real future we all face.

Yayasan Team Action Amed has been recommended as a group that can quickly get help on the ground in Lombok. Go to its Facebook page if you want to help.

Charity does begin at home but in a wealthy country like Australia it should have the capacity to also extend past the front door.

Originally published as Our charity's ugly face