Regional Australians who are struggling with the increased cost of living | 7.30
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- Опубліковано 10 гру 2024
- The cost of living is putting pressure on people all over Australia, but those in the most remote parts of the country face unique challenges. There's often no competition to the local shop, and the cost of freight to move produce vast distances keeps going up.
Regional health reporter Steven Schubert travelled to Balgo, in WA's Kimberley.
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Someone ought to inform prospective immigrants (not that they would pay heed) that Australia remains a destination where most of your earnings are spent to maintain a very expensive way of life. The dream of returning "rich" to your own country is just that....a dream.
But it's the prospect of becoming a citizen someday they seek- australia is expensive but if you slog in exploitative conditions for long enough legally, you can then apply for citizenship and that's a very promising thing. Our country is still safer than most
Want to spend your life working and pay most of your income in taxes then become an Australian
Implement community gardens,
Bush tucker gardens too.
Get these people back to the natural ways of life for them, hunting, fishing, foraging.
Give the little ones a connection to their land and a purpose to care for it
That means they will have to do some work.
Anyway coke and confectionary don't grow on trees.
The Government should increase their dole and pension payments.
All people must work for the dole payments,So why army the young people putting effort into growing foods??? Because they are lazy it's that simple,if they in Asia they would starve ,no work no eat
They have had sit down money for so long it's now culture,just too lazy I'm sorry to say,grog has killed it off,
Also all the food has been hunted out in the bush,coastal,island communities with access to the sea do must better
@@gregsanford3848 You need to see the bigger picture and ask yourself why not much has been done in these communities and most of your answer will stem back to colonisation and the dispossession of land and the enforcement of banning culture practices. These including many other things have been the cause of why many communities are broken and struggling to repair themselves since colonisation.
Of coarse just throw more money at it, that'll fix it, it always does right? You know who should be doing more? The 'Elders'.
Correct ! Unfortunately there is no one in this community that everyone respects . The feuding and fighting never stops here. Police and politicians won’t do anything .
I know this country well i grew up in Halls creek not far from balgo in the 70s and prices in these remote area's has always been expensive,, the transport costs have always been very high,,
They stopped alcohol getting into these remote areas because of the crime etc,,
Both sides of government are to blame as all the money Canberra gives to indigenous people doesn't filter down to the real people that need it most,,,
It's amazing to see that nothing has changed in the last 40 plus years,,, shame on Labor and liberal government's!!
Around 4billion dollars are given to indigenous organisations each year,,,where does the money go??
Had a coworker tell me a few weeks ago that these people "don't want to help themselves". She went to remote communities as a christian missionary. Having that conversation was probably the most disgusted I've ever felt. These people deserve way better than self centred christians attempting to save their own souls by converting the surviving members of some of the most ancient continuously existing cultures in world. These people lived in their country for at least 38,000 years before the birth of Christ, Australians owe it to them to act in their best interests and the pervasive idea that they "don't want to help themselves" is as deplorable as it is false.
Perhaps you could come out and help ?
I feel sad for them.
@sandponics god doesn't exist. How can a loving god allow such suffering? Before you say "to test us", why if he is omniscient does he need to test us if omniscience would allow him to see what is in our hearts and minds and know what we would do without needing to test us?
You can't prove God's existence or non existence without proof either way.
28$ for punkium wow thats terrible
Why isnt the government helping these people to grow their own vegetables
Nothing will grow in these areas . The only thing that keeps this town running is the tax payer.
Maybe question the state government and their utterly insane regulations on the transport industry. For instance to qualify to get one specific license, You must be employed in that industry for a year to be able to apply.. So an employer who wants more drivers has to pay for an extra person to sit in a cab for a year. On long hauls, Where does that other person sleep? Or do the two truckies snuggle up in the can together?
You are very right my friend. The problem with these remote communities is that there is no financial reason for them to be there. If not for the tax payers money these places would not exist. In these communities its all one way freight and it is just not economically viable to run trucks out there.
One THIRD of the sales are in tobacco.... says it all.
He's my dad
A lot of the interviews were edited for a narrative. At the end of the day it is the persons choice if they buy healthy food vs junk and tobacco . Part that was cut out was that we sell the no sugar Coke $2 cheaper than regular coke but the locals just will not buy it.
@@peterklein2427have you lived in a remote town or community? Do you realise how expensive the bare essentials really are? And the challemges in getting food to these areas?? Ive lived in Halls Creek which is the shire that governs the area that Balgo is in.....the fact coke and tobacco is the most common sales is largly due to not being educated on the topic....also because by comparison to the quote "healthy food" is far far cheaper
@@mattgray871 Hahahaha are you for real ??? I have spent decades working in remote and indigenous communities. I have a comprehensive understanding of as you put it the cost of the "bare essentials" but when you spend all of your tax payer provided money on smokes , sly grog. gunja and coca cola it will not matter how inexpensive bare essentials are. Education starts at home with parents teaching their children what is good and healthy for them. At Balgo parents can not tell you where their children are day or night. Life is about choices my friend and when you make poor choices you live with the consequences. People need to stop playing the victim and be the hero of their own lives and those of their children if this cycle is ever going to be broken.
have a nice day at Halls Creek.
@@peterklein2427 re read it....I said "ive lived there, not that I still do...I also have a comprehensive understanding of the challenges these communities and surrounding towns face, having worked in education in three schools in the Kimberley and 2 hospitals, maybe given your wealth of knowledge you would have heard of the phrase "bridging the gap?" Which is relevant in all public sectors in this part of the country especially....centring around education and awareness while also being culturally respectful and accepting, alot of my current clients/paitents are from either Balgo or Kalumburu and the majority are unaware of just how unwell they are, because it has been for more or less normalised.....I am also aware the cycle of intergenerational poverty, abuse and trauma make everything all the more challenging and that this cycle is very unlikely to be broken in this lifetime
Sad truth is these communities are just not sustainable
You are. 100% correct . There is no industry out here , you can’t grow anything in the soil , everyone is on welfare and their children will do the same. It is very sad
no surprise ... tobacco and sugar $$$$$
You can’t be surprised aye, they get free money and spend it on stupid shit
Thanks for posting. Auntie D has a caring and positive attitude, despite all of the hardships. More needs to be done by Government. After all you are known to be a 1st world country.
We're sinking under inflation. I've never seen non-addict homeless tent camps in *australia* until the last year. They're common in the states. But never thought I'd see Australia families with incomes forced into tents
@Treemeadow I'm very sorry you're dealing with that. It's honestly not much better in the USA. It depends on where you're located. SO many people colle t off the government that are perfectly able to work, it's ridiculous! I'm in upstate NY. I lucked out...after working minimum wage jobs in my mid teens into my 20s, I found a job in the paper with my fiance at the time for exterior painters (houses) it's booming in the summer but lags in the winter. After he decided he didn't want to work and had me doing everything on the job, we went our separate ways and the company owner's family took a liking to me and started hiring me and my Dad to do all kinds of odd jobs as well as what I was already doing when my ex left. My Dad is in his mid 60s but can definitely work circles around me and the younger guys 😂 it works for us right now, and has been since 2011. In the summer he does a lot of clean outs and hauling stuff away with his pickup, and I'm in the sun painting almost non stop, going up and down ladders, carrying VERY top heavy ladders around....ugh... 😅 the reason I have to stay in the sun all day is because the sunny sides of the house are best to work with for as long as possible, as the paint dries much faster! Anyway, I could've easily took up residence with one of my parents like my ex did, but NO WAY! I'm a grown single woman and would NEVER inconvenience anyone by freeloaders like so, SO many other people my age do. Shameful really! Anyway, sorry for the novel. Bottom line- I was lucky enough to find the right place at the right time...with the WRONG person (but hey-that only gave me more work AND my Dad so it's HIS LOSS!) 😊 it's not easy work but it's great exercise, keeps me productive, and I love helping my boss's family, plus my Dad gets work. There are a TON of drug dealers in the more urban area, closee to Albany, that drive up to DSS office with expensive vehicles and rims, gold chains etc.. meanwhile older veterans are homeless, there's lots of drug abuse with nothing more than a methadone maintenance program to keep them "legally doped" vigils all over the Troy area (which is about 5 minutes away from albany) with candles memorializing women, children and men that have been killed in drive by shootings. Ugh...😕
I am grateful to have my own 3 bedroom apartment right next to a decent suburban area, which I had help getting into via the landlords working with me with the 1st month's rent because I had great references and knew someone in the building ... all just GOOD LUCK! If anyone had made it this far-thank you for reading, and I wish you all the best luck that I have had so far ❤
what location was this? looks nice
$28 for a pumpkin ,but they will not grow vegetable production, I agree get rid of the coke,and sweets,,stock more kangaroo tails,
We sell sugar free coke for $2 less than regular coke but the locals will not buy it. Not giving people a choice on what they can spend there money on is not the answer . Generational education and proper parenting will help , unfortunately it is in short supply in this community.
You cannot grow anything in that soil....also given Balgo is in the desert there is not alot of rain
S is why the voices is so important. We have to keep looking at whats needed..not just roar past and throw money at it ..help the community from the ground up...give the elders amd others back their authority
It's run by Wirrimanu Aboriginal Corporation that has a board of elected indigenous residents. Nothing would change here if the referendum passes.
BIG NO to the voice.
The voice is useless, we can do more meaningful things without the voice.
The young men don't care
Or people could just control themselves. Grow your own food, water might be an issue, but I'd still give it a go. The Government should put the military to work building remote communal farms, but the real issue would be maintaining them equally.
Too lazy young men want beer pot and stolen tojo,s
Army???? Here's an idea,use the young men instead,
@@gregsanford3848 I agree, but they won't, that's why I stated maintaining them will be the real issue because the army would be handing the farms over to the locals and it'll likely go poorly after that.
Landlords and insecure housing make growing food hard
Remote communities need support to start biodynamic farming
@@Treemeadow I agree, the real issue, as stated, is maintaining them. A town like this isn't already trying to create a farm project like this which is worrying, why invest tax dollars into a doomed project if they are just going to fail to maintain it?
Biggest seller Coke , lollies and Tobacco ........now why are they sick and unhealthy?
That's my dad
Sorry did you miss the $28 pumpkin?
The high inflation because of the aftershocks of COVID are being felt around the world: Global inflation is affecting everyone.
I completely understand why this store has much higher costs than stores in other areas because of his location. Perhaps, gov't pensions (social security) should base and relate pension amounts to the cost 9f living in the pensioner's residence.
It is annoying that so many of the area residents buy large quantities of tobacco products, but when you need to stretch your food budget, it's often a better deal to buy "junk food" than non-packaged, low/no sugar , especially when you're providing 3 meals/day for larger families. She's feeding 10 children and a 3 adults, and just the preparation must take several hours out of one's day. Buying 5lbs of fresh potatoes and cleaning, peeling and cutting them in strips to make homemade, healthy, low-fat french fries in the oven versus grabbing 3 bags of frozen fries that are partially cooked in oil before being frozen and contain several preservatives. However, it's definitely going to he SO MUCH faster. Even if 100% of her $800/month pension went towards food, it'd be tough to feed 13 people with $800/month.
Just too lazy now
Maybe look at the people controlling the money,I bet they do very very well indeed
wow that's some expensive Coke.
We price mark the no sugar variant at $4.40 but they still by the regular version. Locals here are not price sensitive because they have never worked for their money.
Depends the sort of coke it is...
Why does Woolworths not subsidize these stores if the want to do something.... Hu
Fruit and veg should be subsidised by gov 😢
(tax payer) . Government doesn't produce anything all they can just take money off people who earn it and redistribute to people who don't.
no one is being forced to buy coke...
I can tell you that it is very hard for the indigenous people in this area to survive as they are caught in two worlds the white man and the traditional ways and today's indigenous generation want to have the best of both worlds,, there needs to be education and support to these people in remote areas ,,i have much respect for their land as i grew up as a white boy amongst these people not only balgo there is moola bulla ,, and many others in this part of the Kimberley's i hope both Labor and liberal governments can bring positive change and stop the blame game because these are the people that suffer in the end!!
Get a job and become contributors to the economy-that’s a good solution. If they aren’t skilled adequately then go and get skilled. Typical abc journalism
Your right mate , the truth is these communities are not sustainable only being propped up by our tax dollars. There is no employment out here .everyone is on welfare like their parents before them and like their children will be.
I feel so bad for these people, they have been suffering for so long. 💔
So how much we're not trying for connection?
White or settled Australians don't get that choice. Why?
Are they holding a grudge?
A Burning question for a lot of people is Why are they not Growing their own vegetables seeing as they own all this Land. Is there No one able to Educate them in that life's aspect ?
I'm sure that some do, but its not exactly the best condditions in the soil for growing crops
Maybe we all should be growing our own veg
We stole all the prime farm land btw, can't grow much in the desert
Is the land arable?
There are native edible plants adapted to the arid environment. But a lot of the time they are slow growing and can take a long time to start producing fruit. In the video they are cooking a brush turkey making damper which is source from the environment. There is a book by the csiro about most promising native plants that could be grown on a larger scale for domestic use and possibly exported but I forgot what the name of it is.
Where's the rice
That's a great question, where is the rice??????? It's back in Darwin
The shops ripped them blind
Can't Aboriginals live off the land. If they are getting problems? Isn't there a whole area where they can go?
Before the the howard governments intervention there were jobs and full time jobs at that but then comes John Howard the first thing he does is abolish CDEP if you dont know what CDEP is Google it now there is only contract work and they mostly come from Mt Isa
That's my dad
5:03 ….. What the!?!?! $779.23 …. What’s she buying??? 😂😅 That’s a lot of tobacco and coke lol
Cool
Give up the grog and smokes,and there will be enough money for food!
No way! The rest of it goes on ganga and playing cards.😂
Was it us that hurt them? No
You can’t just keep letting immigrants call this place home when my people struggle.
How is that even related? I trust you have seen who rejected the subsidy in the video? Is Scott Morrison an immigrant? Well, I agree if you say, from a native Australian point of view, all white people are technically immigrants. Food prices are mainly fuelled by the inflation of energy, whereas energy is being controlled by those few big companies -- non of them is owned by an immigrant.
Are the immigrants causing your people to drink, fight and bash each other up? Do immigrants stop you going to school and getting an education and a career? Stop believing your problems are caused by the government or other outside forces. It is your job to improve yourself.
You have to help yourself
Have you ever been here ?
Xenophobic
well when you live in the middle of nowhere you can't really complain about your living standards because nothing is stopping you from moving closer to civilization
not to forget your honey soy sauce coming from china -even further
Yes there is.
@@mathewrisos8193 no there isn't
@@potapotapotapotapotapota well they would have to apply for housing and wait several years before they could get moved into cities
@@danielsonn3046 I don't think you realise. There is like nothing else around their little neighbourhood for almost a thousand kilometres. You have to fly in to get there. So they are complaining about something that is literally impossible to fix. I know housing is expensive in the cities, but these people are expecting to live a city kind of life with none of the infrastructure to allow them to.
They only have two choices - either accept their life and the consequences of living in the middle of nowhere or move closer to civilization.
To put it in perspective, the amount of empty space they have surrounding them is like the entirety of Sweden (land in km^2). They must be just about the most remote community in all of Australia if not the entire world.
They get more $$ then the people who in Sydney needing help
So they are crying wolf because of race sorry to say
No they don't they get the same Centrelink payment rate as everyone else
How is she getting less then me a 21 year old job seeker that’s my mob. Wtf service’s Australia.
If you're talking about the $400 she mentioned, then they also said that she sells art. If that's putting her over the income threshold, then she would get less from the pension than someone without an income, but more money overall. Otherwise the pension supplement, as well as remote area living allowance, would make it more than being unemployed in the city.
Unless you know for sure how much she got for her paintings you don't really know
Pretty people aren't they.
Bwahahaha yeah gorgeous bunch
Grow some plants