tagged: Armidale, broadband, Health care, Independent, NBN, NSW, Politics, Rural Australia, rural cities, Tamworth, Telstra, Twitter

Closing the city country divide – independently

Posted by Myles Harris in Politics

“How far we all come. How far we all come away from ourselves. You can never go home again,” James Agee; A Death in the Family.

Over 10 years ago I moved from a small city in NSW by the name of Armidale, to the City of Melbourne.

I had been there from birth through to 18. It was a massive choice for us, but one we are all glad we made.

We moved due to my father’s business commitments and the thrill of a new chapter in our lives. I had been unable to get a job and was working for myself.

Looking back, life in the evolving world was becoming increasingly difficult to live in rural communities.

The family had also joined the internet a few years prior to leaving and were getting very involved, albeit on an hourly rate.

We started on 36.6kbps and had just been able to upgrade to 56.6kbps in the year 2000. The Internet has been my family’s future – something that would not have been possible with sub-standard rural broadband.

So before Christmas down to Melbourne we went, head-first into the hustle, bustle and speed of a Capital City.

I remember the pace of everything amazed me.

We could connect to broadband internet, I could get into a doctor that day and not weeks. Mail took days not weeks, shops had stock of things. The food in cafes and restaurants was amazing and the produce in supermarkets was fantastically fresh AND CHEAP!

It was clear in the first month of being in Melbourne just how much the cities had to offer. It wasn’t just big buildings, it was facilities, it was services and it was money.

I relished this and have gone on to love Melbourne and all I am able to make of myself here.

Recently however I was required to go back home. I hadn’t been home in 10 years and was excited to see how the place had moved on.

It hadn’t.

Sure, they had a new shopping centre and a Hungry Jacks, but everything else was in dire need of a coat of paint (I don’t think there had been one since I left) and a breath of fresh air.

Less than 1/3 of the shops were occupied in the East End Mall – a once newly renovated area of the bustling city centre which held all the new businesses; leaves and litter blustered past  shopfronts with ‘for let’  signs in the windows, the same ones that had been sitting there for years.

The prestigious Richardson’s arcade in the main shopping district – is now empty.

It’s the same story everywhere; there are patches of life here and there but Armidale is no longer a hive of activity.

It’s like the town is dying and screaming for help and it’s doing it with a faded Bicentennial ’88 sign on its council chambers.

A lack of shopping isn’t a major concern to me though; it’s just an obvious boil on a body that’s not well.

What is more of a concern to me are the diabolical health services.

The stories that were told to me (I didn’t even ask mind you) of misdiagnosis, indifferent and incompetent staff that either don’t know if they should or don’t know how to perform tasks and if you need to see a specialist, well that’s a near two hour drive to Tamworth.

It really hit home just what a mess health care is up there, when a friend of mine needed to get an MRI recently. There was a two to three week waiting list and a two hour drive to Tamworth. To top it off, who was going to drive him for two hours to get there? He wasn’t able to drive due to the condition that he needed the MRI for.

The icing on the cake however is the diabolical communications infrastructure.

Mobile phones on anything but Telstra get three bars at best.

Data is slow; ADSL 1 is available but can’t go to all homes , so telcos sell wireless “solutions” instead.

Wireless of course works about as well as the phones do, so if you aren’t on Telstra, it’s back to the days of dialup speeds.

In the end it’s fair to say, the country welcomes the NBN with open arms.

So what has this got to do with the Independents?

All of this represents the neglect that rural centres have endured for years. It’s the neglect that got the Independents the massive swings in the first place.

It’s the neglect that the Independents work bloody hard to minimise.

Sure it’s not just one person’s or the government’s fault, however since the infrastructure is not there, it is always a case of shoulda, coulda, woulda around local councils, state parliament and federal parliament that gets us precisely nowhere.

So what does the soon to be Government need to do with the Independents?

It needs to make living outside of a capital city not only attractive, but viable. We need services that are similar if not the equal to those in the city.

They need a proportionate amount of doctors for the population. We are sick and tired of have our few remaining doctors work so hard they get burnt out and leave.

They need broadband to make it viable to do business from the country and to support the myriad of industries it would benefit.

They need the quality of life that the cities enjoy.

We all need people to bring their lives to the country.

Only then, when the reasons for not making a tree or sea change are removed, will it be attractive to move out of the cities.

Make it a no-brainer decision and a cinch to live in rural areas and they will come.

I have a feeling once the population spreads out from the hives that are the cities, everyone will be happier.

I certainly look forward to the day that I can consider going home and stay there.

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