Wilcannia
We travelled around Australia some years ago.
The aboriginal town of Wilcannia seemed to be the saddest of the sad. I've no idea why I felt that. It was one of many similar communities.
This article is from independent media outlet, NewMatilda. It's written by 'refugees' from the mainstream media1. It was brought to my attention by a John Pilger tweet.
This is the article summary.
"At the start of the pandemic, international jetsetters were rushing home to quarantine in five-star hotels at Australian taxpayers’ expense. And complaining about it."
"At the same time, governments around the country were ‘ring-fencing the vulnerable’ by blocking access to aged care centres, and closing remote Aboriginal communities."
"Meanwhile in Wilcannia, a chronically overcrowded Aboriginal community in a remote corner of the Far West of NSW, residents there couldn’t even convince the Berejiklian government to give them tents so they could isolate from the virus in their own backyards."
"Now, 18 months after the COVID-19 crisis began, more than one third of the community has contracted the disease in a shocking outbreak that has captured the world’s attention."
It speaks for itself.
For those following this blog, you will know that there are no tax heroes at the Federal level. If spending is done by the currency issuing government then it's not funded by either tax or borrowing (bonds). The money is created out of thin air when the Fed spends. It's debit government, credit bank deposit (money). It's not spent "at Australian taxpayers' expense."
Tax heroes, and especially the racist ones, can sit down and shut up if the Fed is spending on aborigines. The Fed effectively destroys tax money on receipt. There's no Richie Rich vault of tax payer money which is drawn on.
If the spending is done by the NSW government then it is funded by taxes and or borrowing. This is the source of the constant squabbling over taxes being wasted or governments being forced into borrowing.
I would have thought that overall responsibility for aborigines and pandemics lay with the Federal government. If that had been the case, the Federal government would have funded all the spending, and the racist tax heroes could have been told to sit down and shut up. Their taxes weren't needed for this.
"Cherie Von Horchner is the editor of the Barrier Truth, based in Broken Hill. She is a former ABC journalist. JACK MARX is the sub editor of the Barrier Truth, and a Walkley Award winning journalist. CHRIS GRAHAM is the editor and publisher of New Matilda, and a Walkley Award and Human Rights Award winning journalist."↩