Small things can make change
I SPENT a fair amount of time in Toowoomba last week.
We broadcast the show on Sky News and had the chance to meet the very special people who are lending a helping hand to the many families across Queensland who are doing it tough.
Not too far out of town you can see the scars of more than seven years of drought.
The land is bone dry and the stories people have to tell are heartbreaking.
From the farmers who borrowed money for new cattle, only to have them die in the floods up north, to the many families who have moved into a house with their neighbours to save money and share water.
These are tough times, but that’s breaking news to anyone outside of the capital cities.
On Wednesday night I met the ladies from the Queensland Country Women’s Association.
Huge-hearted women who have the unenviable task of going through the applications for help they get every day.
They told me two things that will stick with me for a long time to come.
As money dries up, like the water people so desperately need, families are cutting back.
But after seven years they have cut back so much now, many people don’t have the money to fill up their cars and head into town.
As a result isolation leads to depression and eventually helplessness.
It also means kids don’t get to play sport.
The cost of travel is too much and buying things like new footy boots just can’t happen.
Even if there’s money for fuel, some kids aren’t able to play or even get to the school bus because families can’t afford to pay for the rego.
This one in particular made me angry, not just because people are going without, but because this is a totally unnecessary burden.
Thanks to mining royalties Queensland’s Government is running a surplus.
They have more money than they need to spend on everything they need to, so why keep hunting these families for a few hundred dollars that makes the difference between being locked on your property and reaching out to the outside world?
Surely we can have a system, where as long as the car is safe and roadworthy the Government can waive rego payments for people in the worst affected areas of the drought?
Why can’t government take some of the billions they get in road taxes to give more money to groups like the QCWA to fuel vouchers to these families living right on the edge?
There are a million good causes that are all crying out for money, but these people need to stay on the land.
They feed us, they keep country towns alive and they are key to keeping our vital export trades alive.
This is do or die stuff; the government needs to understand the smallest of things can make the biggest of changes to regions.
It should be someone’s full-time job in Brisbane and Canberra to look for little things like rego payments, council rates and myriad of other ‘small time’ payments in the scope of things that do little effect to the budget bottom line, but can act as a sign we all care and need the people of the bush.
I can’t thank the people of Toowoomba enough for a great time and I want everyone who hasn’t been for a while to book a trip and check it out as soon as you can.