FAITH, HOPE AND CHARITY
WHAT a week of emotions. Agony, ecstasy, disbelief, despair, faith and hope; all brought about by major events both at home and abroad.
Two footy teams ended a year’s incredible effort in vastly different circumstances, but while the Tigers’ ultimate high was somewhat sobered by the Cowboys’ devastating low, Antonio Winterstein’s beautiful missus Brooke summed up the end to their incredible season perfectly, “Didn’t get the icing on the cake, but woweeeee, it is still a great cake!”
There was despair elsewhere as tensions mounted between the US and North Korea, but while we might have thought Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un were the most ill- equipped individuals to be in charge of a deadly weapon stockpile, Las Vegas concertgoers were decimated by a lone gunman who managed to kill 59 and injure over 500 people from his legally obtained arsenal.
Yet despite adding this atrocity to the Sandy Hook and Orlando shootings there appears to be little hope leaders will consider adopting Australia’s effective gun control measures.
The National Rifle Association’s donations to political electoral campaigns means few politicians will argue the musket- era Second Amendment’s right to bear arms, so we can only watch at the all too familiar outpourings of sympathy, and wonder how a marginal group can wield so much power over a population.
Locally, commentators believe our national broadcaster ABC is equally agenda- driven, condemning the Four Corners investigation into the Adani group.
The program featured Indian energy, social and economic experts critical of the company’s operations, but you can’t really blame our leaders for their stance, because … jobs.
So while there was much backslapping as Townsville and Rockhampton were announced as FIFO bases for the Carmichael mine, is it irresponsible to ignore the red flags raised by the ABC?
Emotions aside, here’s a fact. We were promised 10,000 jobs would eventuate from this venture. Somehow this has been downsized to just over 1000 jobs, and with the first 80 workers flown into Townsville rather than hired locally, all we can do now is hope that other figures won’t be as rubbery.
And as Townsville and Rockhampton councils each agreed to commit $ 18.5 million of ratepayer funds to build Adani an airport for the FIFO workers, is it good business that we won’t receive any revenue unless other mining companies use it? Our council also plans a FIFO drug testing facility to be located at Townsville’s airport, owned by QAL. Good deal? You decide. The farmers featured on the Four Corners program said Adani’s 60- year unlimited water supply is likely to adversely affect the Great Artesian Basin, but as with environmental concerns for the reef, jobs matter more.
So this is where faith and hope come into play.
We have to hope that our economy ultimately benefits from these generous funding agreements.
We have to hope that the promised ‘ rigorous’ environmental measures to protect our land and reef are enforced.
Ultimately we have to hope that all levels of government act in our best interests, which leaves us taking a leaf out of George Michael’s songbook; we’ve gotta have faith.