Australia Once The Lucky Country

Now many live homeless and dreading tomorrow. We must do better for everyone. Choose to be lucky again. Choose to feel better by behaving better. Choosing lucky, always.

There was a time when Australians could be guaranteed a roof over their heads.

People whose incomes were modest chose to live in regional areas, where rent was cheap, and hope was alive and well.

There was plenty of work around and a built-in support system that allowed courage to grow once more, especially if you’d been down on your luck.

But that has changed.

Regional areas are thriving and landlords are cashing in on the boom, raising their rents, in some instances not renewing leases because they want to ‘renovate’, and in others refusing to do basic maintenance because they have plenty of people lining up to take your place.

Empathy is absent.

Making a quick buck is everything!

I watched a 4Corners program on ABC last night and I felt totally ashamed.

How on earth have we moved from being the Lucky Country, to one where people young and old, are sleeping on the street, or hiding in the scrub with their tents, moving on in the day time when the authorities might pounce.

How can we care so little?

The program featured one young single mother, a casualty of this war, caught in the crossfire she could never have been prepared for.

About Kaila…

She was renting in a country town I know well, one of those pretty places that quietly churn along, enjoying very favourable weather for the most part, with kind people, neighbors who say g’day, a great place to rear your children.

The house Kaila was renting needed a lot of work, ‘riddled with mould and asbestos and the roof was leaking. She had both children sleeping in her bedroom because the ceiling in her son’s room was caving in.

Her pleas to the owner to fix things had fallen on deaf ears.

She had to get out and so, let the landlord know she wouldn’t be renewing her lease (due to expire in two months!).

Little did she realise that the competition in town would be fierce.

Despite having two jobs at the tavern, one as a cleaner and the other as a bar maid, and despite having excellent references, she found herself homeless.

“Rents went up in the Bellingen area by 48 per cent in the year to December 2021 — the highest increase in NSW, as it became a coveted treechange destination during Australia’s period of rapid COVID-inspired internal migration.

“For context, that’s three times higher than the rest of regional Australia in the same period and 16 times higher than the capital cities.”

There’s a nouveau riche in Bellingen.

People who once lived in the city, have sold up, capitalized on the stellar rises in city house prices, invested their money, and bought cheaper in Bellingen.

They’re the cafe-drinking set with money to burn.

But their presence in town has caused a seismic shift for the people not so well off.

They have been totally left out of the wealth equation so many are enjoying.

They have been totally left out!

Sure, Bellingen is now enjoying an upper class trend in the population, one that is ready to shop and support the town.

But the basic infrastructure is in tatters.

There are no rental properties for nurses.

Or teachers.

Or bar tenders.

Or…any other category of worker that relies on rental accommodation.

We now have two distinct classes, the haves, and have nots.

We have the people with super-comfy homes.

And the displaced.

And nothing much in between!

And soon the trendy town, that is gathering speed, may turn out to be not so trendy, as support workers turn down jobs offered.

But for the compassion of the owner of the tavern, Kaila too would have been out on the street.

He has given her a room, for three months, at the tavern. There is no stove, so cooking in a microwave is her option.

There is no reason to believe that a home for Kaila will magically appear in the next three months.

Meantime this brave young mother puts on a happy face for her children.

She’s ‘scheduling her mental breakdown for later in the year.’ It’s a dark joke for the camera.

I’m adding Kaila to my list of people who deserve a break.

I’m hoping some compassionate people might respond to a situation that would break most of us.