OPINION: Regional right-wing operatives are not going to win votes with insults, falsehoods or whingeing about how people vote.
NEWSFLASH!
Labor won the most regional seats at this month’s state election.
There were strong swings against Labor in the bush, but the party still won and still got the highest primary vote in most regional seats, including those it lost.
Yet regional social media pages in the weeks since would have you believe country voters were enthusiastically in favour of secession from Perth because they rejected Labor.
A core tenet of this rubbish is that ‘city slickers’ don’t care about the bush: they’re too focused on what alternative milk they want in their latte and shining their RMs so as to peacock around St Georges Terrace.
The claim is spurious, at best.
Most Perth residents have a strong affiliation with regional Western Australia.
Many are descendants of country families.
Many more earn a crust out bush, and spend their down-time camping, fishing, sipping wines, or hitting the open road.
Others, still, have lived in the regions and only moved back to the city due to life and career factors outside of their control.
There are plenty of good reasons city voters should and would consider what their vote means for the regions.
• Protecting the idyllic campgrounds and caravan parks we grew up visiting every year with our families.
• Supporting the businesses that grow and make fresh produce we love to eat and drink.
• Connections to farming towns where our grandparents toiled to build the lives we enjoy today.
• Ensuring the industries that underpin our economy can operate in a welcoming, well-regulated business environment.
• Looking after our favourite fishing, snorkelling and diving spots.
I could go on.
Yet we never hear the conservative side of politics spruiking these messages; unless of course it is rolled into some ridiculous ‘attacking the weekend’ rant, as the state Nationals and federal Coalition have tried in recent years.
Instead, from the city it can appear those well beyond the suburban fringe are little more than hardliners who: spread misinformation about clean energy sources, engage in a spot of casual racism, deride others’ lifestyle choices, and lobby for greater gun rights.
We see battle lines being drawn on issues such as live export, Aboriginal heritage, national park creation, and energy.
There are rifts those meddling forces will have you believe are unbridgeable.
And, of course, regional WA’s woes are all the fault of those in the city.
If there is any truth to that blame game, however, it is in no way intentional, but more an indication of how life beyond the metropolitan area is misunderstood by many in the city.
These zealots and their pet issues are doing no favours to people in regional WA who want that genuine discourse with voters in the city about the real issues that need to be addressed.
Those real issues are housing and healthcare shortages, rising crime, the exodus of government services, fly-in, fly-out workforces, the cost to do business, and the preservation of natural assets that make country life attractive.
They deserve a look-in from those city voters who care about the country.
And guess what?
Almost everyone I talk to about issues and opportunities in regional WA is both interested in, and surprised about, what they learn.
Country folk love having a crack at those in the city, and vice versa.
I have no problem with that. It is good fun.
These zealots, however, are vitriolic in their criticism of those in the big smoke.
It is purposely divisive and driven by little other than self-interest.
That is hardly the way to get people on board with country causes that need to be dealt with.
