Make your voice heard
IT IS interesting that in an election campaign many important human issues are ignored.
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This is what is called ethical silence.
In this election campaign, two striking examples of ethical silence are the treatment of Indigenous Australians and of people who have sought protection in Australia from persecution.
Of course asylum seekers and young Indigenous people are spoken about, often noisily, by politicians, but always an object of policy, not as people whose lives have been blighted by policy.
This silence is an ethical silence that covers people whom we want to keep out of mind.
In the political discourse around this election, the voice for the voiceless is rarely heard there faces are not seen in all the advertising.
Has the economy become a kind of false god to which even human beings have to be sacrificed?
Until the “voiceless” are heard and their faces seen, I don’t believe that we will have a truly human society in which economic management serves human beings and not the other way round.
As well as our Indigenous Australians, refugees and asylum seekers, who else are the “voiceless” in this election campaign?
- Survivors of sexual abuse crying out for redress and healing.
- The sufferers of family violence, often unseen and unheard.
- The elderly, who can be seen as an economic burden.
- Those who suffer mental illness who can end up in the too-hard basket.
- Those entrapped in workplace or sexual slavery.
A society is ultimately judged not on how well it manages the economy (as important as this is), but on how well it treats the “thrown-away people”.
When ethical silence festers in society, people lose faith in political parties and public institutions. They recognise that these bodies do not understand their predicaments and will not act on their behalf.
People then become alienated from public life.
As we consider the upcoming election, we must all be prepared to speak out on matters of justice and human values and not allow a political or any other system to silence us.
Peter McPhee
Leeton
Budget has its ups and downs
THE Department of Primary Industries aspiration of a 30 per cent boost in agriculture by 2020 has taken a hit in the NSW Budget.
At a time when Local Land Services (LLS) is gearing up to implement landmark biodiversity reforms, the Government is proposing to sell $19 million of LLS property.
This is disappointing news. If LLS assets are to be sold, then the revenue raised must go towards infrastructure to support farmers. Without strong commitments for additional LLS resourcing, we are not confident Government will be able to roll out biodiversity reforms to farmers as promised on January 1, 2017.
However, there are some wins for regional communities. The accelerated commitment of $15 million in new money to extend the Mobile Black Spot program is the one new initiative the NSW Government has done in this budget to increase farmer productivity.
The 2016-17 Budget reiterates last year’s commitment of $6 billion from the $20 billion expected from the long-term lease of the poles and wires.
Derek Schoen
President
NSW Farmers
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