Since the start of this year, I have come to a realisation, a realisation that effectively I don't have a home country anymore.
That's a bit melodramatic, isn't it?
Well, the longer this goes on the more I see that it isn't. I love Australia, it's a country that I am so proud to call my home. But this pride is shifting to shame the longer this goes on. Shame that my own countrymen are turning on one another and Governments of all levels are selling out their fellow countrymen for the sake of an election result, even domestically.
Once upon a time, it was always stated that Australia was "the lucky country" well very quickly it's becoming a selfish country. A country that will sell out its own for their own personal interests. I talk about the narrative and restriction of Australian's permitted to return to their homeland whether permanently or temporarily. Why can't they? Well, it's all in the interests of "public health".
I remember in history class in school and I saw a political cartoon that summed up Australia in September 1939. It had two farmers and it simply had one going "hey mate what's going on in Europe?" and the other farmer goes "I don't know, drought maybe?" It summed up not just Australia's isolation from the rest of the world at the time but also a trait of Australia's "no worries" mentality. A mentality that has gone to another level with the pandemic in that Aussies are now "well if it doesn't affect me then who cares, screw them" or "have you seen the cases, we don't want that here"
Australia has one of the best healthcare systems in the world and yet I will tell you this Australia, I have been in the US since July and American's are mostly back to normal and using common sense. The scenes in the streets are not . . .
I can go to a bar, listen to live music. Go to a restaurant or even go to Disneyworld if I choose to do so. I even travelled internationally and the only requirement was to have a negative COVID test prior to boarding a flight. No quarantine, no self-isolation. No one needed to give me permission to leave and return to the US. America and many other nations are simply back to having it as your own personal choice. Australia it's time to do the same. The first step is to allow Australian's free passage of travel to/from their own country.
Besides being busy with a US Visa renewal and work I have somewhat neglected this site. But my writings have mostly been to simply go "it's time to say no more!" and for the first time in my life, I have now become the person who writes and bugs MPs. That's right I am now writing letters to MPs in Australia at all levels and all sides of the political fence.
Australia it's time to care for your own and hear the stories of the Australian's you have abandoned, as Margaret Thatcher said when it comes to your Government it's one where you . . .
"have the State as servant and not as master"
Australia is very quickly shifting to the latter and it's concerning. I have written to other MPs at the state and federal levels and still yet to hear back, including from the following gentleman, the man who is
"In charge, he’s the boss, the head man, the top dog, the big cheese, the head honcho, number one"
This is my letter to the Prime Minister, I share it with you and hope that many other Aussies read it and realise the situation. We aren't backpackers! We just want the opportunity to come home freely as a citizen should be.
Ash
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