Working Class Man
In the words of the great Jimmy Barnes “ I tell ya he’s a working class man”. Senator Payman, just threw a bomb at the Labor Party, and they’re vulnerable. I think she exposes a lot more then she knows, I’m not even sure it’s her intention to show this, but she invariably has. It's possible that she runs the risk of starting, here in Australia, the very thing that her family ran away from. But I think if we analyse the situation properly and respond accordingly, it'll only strengthen the nation not tear it up.
I grew up in western Sydney, the grandchild of migrants, surrounded by people of many origins, from Australians everywhere. We did however all have two things in common, we were proudly Australian, and mostly working class.
There was a sense of belonging and hope, there was opportunity, that we might enjoy a better life than what our parents and grandparents had. After all that's why everyone was here. It was a shared vision across this great nation. Everyone was welcome if they worked when they got here. You got a job, and you got along.
There was no talk of multiculturalism or religious enclaves - all groups, in fact people, if they had faith, quietly practised. There was much we felt in common in places like western Sydney with the people of regional and country Australia. A sense of struggle for better - a common understanding that you worked and hoped for the best.
We were encouraged to be a part of the great Australian dream, to work hard, buy a home and start a family. We had simple dreams. To me it’s places like western Sydney, south-western Sydney, north-western Melbourne, outer Brisbane, regional and country Australia where quiet Australians reside.
Those that voted “No” on The Voice, that just want to get along, almost, to go back to the way things were. I suspect the vast majority of people that Senator Payman suggests she's there to support would identify with that dream.
I suspect the overwhelming majority are simply working class Australians, here for a better life. Labor is not talking to them, the Greens are certainly not talking to them, the Liberal Party is flat ignoring them, nobody else seems to care. However many new migrants that have come to Australia in the last decade or so, came for hope, came for an opportunity that just simply isn’t there anymore.
That, right there, is the problem. Opportunity. The quiet Australians know, quietly, deep in their heart that nobody’s listening to them, nobody at all seems to understand much less care. The establishment, the elites, those running the major parties, and minor parties are more interested in polling numbers than who those numbers actually represent. I’m not afraid of what Senator Payman is trying to achieve, I don’t think Australia has room or time for any form of religious zealotry or sectarianism; but the way in which she has exposed Labor’s inability to listen to the working class, that's priceless.
We've seen around the world particularly in the UK and the US migrant groups and the working class getting behind the organisations that want to bring radical change, but I think what they're searching for more than anything else is a change back to common sense. To renew the promise of Australia and to deliver on it.
This presents the right of centre minor parties and most certainly the Liberal Party the opportunity to take a good hard look at the various communities around the lesser talked of parts of Australia, and really listen. Offer them the product that they're looking for.
A return to common sense, because at the end of the day there are a lot of young people out there right now that understand this verse: “Well, he loves a little woman Someday he'll make his wife Saving all the overtime For the one love of his life” And they just want to buy a house and get on with it. #auspol #Liberal, #Labor #PHON #Greens #Libertarian #Dutton #Albanese