The view from Bradfield
By Jane Salmon
Some people believe a first class ticket even guarantees them VIP status in the only lifeboat …
While everyone is carefully counting the Bradfield votes for the third week in a row, I’d like to have a little word.
So, you followed Mummy and Daddy’s advice to vote for privilege, mining shares, franking credits, low taxes and huge house prices.
Grandpa, fresh from his latest cruise or golf, approved. Your prosperity-driven neighbours and families from school or uni followed suit.
You are part of a network that goes to the Yacht Club for 21sts and 50ths or still follows fine horses. It skis in Thredbo and Aspen. Shared values are primarily safe and selfish; with a few trips to a place of worship thrown in for luck.
You also believe Australia is “too crowded”, so fewer immigrants will add a layer of “sustainability”. Your forebears got here by divine merit … or times were “different”.
You actually think teachers and nurses are desperate to look after you for the pittance they’re paid because … you’re “nice”!
Your job at Price Waterhouse or a merchant bank is assured … once that pesky Economics Law degree is over with. Take your time. There will somehow be room for you to buy in the ‘burbs near home: dear departed grandparents willing. All you have to do is stay relatively sober until then … enjoy the inner city unit … pay the parking fines, recycle plastics, dry clean your suits, wear the right brand watch and try not to crash the car.
In Bradfield, you actually voted for a candidate with few announced policies and such a flimsy grasp on issues that she dodged repeated invitations to be interviewed by the 7.30 Report. She spent ridiculous amounts on negative advertising rather than policy positions, repeating partisan hairdresser gossip. The Independent was also labelled a racial and religious bigot (if only by association) for good measure.
Your vote was assisted by non-voting Exclusive Brethren in return for leverage. This branding arms race produced what? A bit less free thought?
“The Olds” (do they even live in Bradfield) don’t actually care whether your future is hot, radioactive, flooded, privatised or you have to pay up front at Casualty. That, plus a few hundred thousand towards with your first mortgage, will be their legacy. It’s the price of fiscal “progress”, taking care of business.
You may be top of the heap, but that heap is beginning to stink. You and your kids won’t be living quite so comfortably.
Are you proud? Did you ask for better? Are you sure this is all you can possibly do with your secret ballot?
Are you truly confident that you should number boxes this way in the future?
Liberal signage denigrating the Teal candidate
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Very sharp.., I live and vote here, an “outsider”, old retired teacher and muso, and vote after consideration, constant observation, research, and voted strategically so that the independent, Ms. Boele, had my netted vote. Fascinating to watch now…as my gifted grandkids, the community, the environment, the planet, await a better future. Never vote conservative, with its greed, vanity, imperious coercive oppressive supremacist attitudes.
The Teals are fine if you prefer a “make it up as you go” approach to policy
OHH,Jane, I absolutely love it,so cuttingly accurate.Reminds me of Barry Humphries hammering up to the snow in their Volksies and their Minis.
I have family on my brother’s side like this,I’ve been a first hand witness.
I like this bit ‘You also believe Australia is “too crowded”, so fewer immigrants will add a layer of “sustainability”.’
That’s the old Rockefeller (Standard Oil/Exxon) Bros. ZPG and now Tanton Network vocabulary of fossil fuel greenwashing and eugenics; informs FoxNews, Project2025 etc., local migration policies and bipartisan bigotry.
Although the US Dems avoid such astroturfing, ALP and now recent comments by Starmer in the UK suggests it’s a (confected) bipartisan issue amongst many middle aged and older voters….