Fake help is un-Australian
Dubious timing for milk levy
THERE’S helping your image and there’s a real helping hand for farmers.
This week we saw two very different responses to problems being felt deeply by regional Australia.
The first was the way Aussies rallied around our strawberry farmers.
It took a few days, but once people realised their chances of falling foul of the low-lives who have been putting needles in the fruit were minimal they have been eating strawberries by the bucketload.
My favourite footage of the week was a long line of cars pulling into a farm to buy them direct from the farmer.
The Prime Minister seized the moment perfectly to admonish the saboteurs and encourage everyone to eat more of them than before, just cut them up first.
Australians have this wonderful way of doing their bit when we know someone is in trouble.
We donate quickly to good causes and make a little addition to the weekly shopping knowing it’s our bit to help.
The second – and less authentic – response to people in need came from the giant supermarkets who have finally decided to put a levy on milk to help our struggling dairy producers.
For years they have screwed the sector with their dollar milk offerings and pleas directly from the farmers for help have been ignored.
Late this week, funnily enough on the same day, Coles and Woolworths said they would add a levy to help dairy farmers.
It won’t start for a couple of weeks and it’s only until the end of the year for one supermarket giant and January next year for the other.
What will be any different for dairy producers then?
There is no need to put an end date on this – in doing so the supermarkets are either going to leave them in the lurch again or are wanting a second hit of good publicity if they decide to extend it.
This is a stunt, one designed to show they care.
Here’s an idea: stop selling dollar milk and leave the levy in place.
Australians can spot the difference between a fair dinkum attempt to help people and a sugar hit of publicity.
Twitter, it’s you, not me
I’ve been off Twitter for a couple of months and it’s the best thing I’ve done in ages.
There wasn’t a moment that “broke” me and I didn’t quit in a huff. I just stopped using it.
The truth is what once started out as a bit of fun had descended into the internet’s toilet door.
I love a strong opinion, but everything is reduced to “the best thing ever” or, more often than not, “the worst thing in the world”.
In reality, life is much more complicated than that and there are better things to do than scream into the keyboard and hope someone is going to “like” it.