{"id":41079,"date":"2019-03-26T16:20:46","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T05:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=41079"},"modified":"2022-05-02T12:24:37","modified_gmt":"2022-05-02T02:24:37","slug":"would-it-kill-you-to-listen-on-the-campaign-trail-with-malleeray-malleevotes-davelennonabc-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/would-it-kill-you-to-listen-on-the-campaign-trail-with-malleeray-malleevotes-davelennonabc-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"Would it kill you to listen? On the campaign trail with @malleeray #malleevotes: @davelennonabc reports"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Campaigning at markets has its perks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After a week in the shearing shed Ray Kingston (@MalleeRay<\/a>) the Independent for Mallee kicked off Saturday in a cafe at Kerang just talking to people who wanted to have a chat about their concerns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next came the Kerang Markets, which spread along the walkway in a lush park just across the road from the Sir John Gorton Library, a reminder of another local mayor who continued on to federal politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerang is a town on the Loddon River in open-channel irrigation country in Northern Victoria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things aren\u2019t great for this farming community. It was really noticeable driving in, since it’s looking patchy at best. Once again it all comes down to water, and for dairy farmers the price of milk. All the major supermarkets might have ditched dollar-a-litre milk but the full extent of the damage it did to the industry is not yet clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rural towns like Kerang are service centres for their farmers so these are still uncertain times. This article<\/a> from The Gannawarra Times<\/em> shortly before the end of the milk price issue covers the issues well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gallows humour<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After a good morning in Kerang, including buying what I swear is the world’s heaviest watermelon (see image, above) it was a quick half-hour drive down to the Pyramid Hill Fiesta!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been a lot of years since I was last in the town and frankly then there was almost a gallows humour around it\u2019s prospects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good news… Pyramid Hill is back, baby!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday was Fiesta Day, a celebration of the Filipino population in the town and testament to how you do decentralisation and immigration properly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cracking the code<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Pyramid Hill is not the only town in Mallee that has ‘cracked the code’ on this. It ain\u2019t hard: identify a need and meet it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s almost always a need for workers, in this case for a local piggery. Find a group of willing immigrants, put in the support services they will need and then welcome them into your community with open arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I really wish I could have taken a tour group around the Fiesta, a mixed group of people, some of whom think all rural folk are dyed-in-the-wool racists, mingled with doomsayers who contend immigrants don\u2019t try to fit in <\/a>and a few members of ‘city superior’ crowd who are convinced that no ideas of value comes from the regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A remarkably similar scenario is playing out in Nhill (also part of the Mallee electorate) with the Karen<\/a> Community. It is not a case (as you often see it described in headlines) of them being \u201cforced\u201d into regional Victoria. They are offered the chance to come and have a look and to meet those already here, and if they like what they see they come and stay and set up Facebook pages.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also start their own businesses, and after coming to be part of the workforce for Luv-a-Duck in Nhill, the Karen have branched out to be an important part of the workforce for over 30 businesses.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And good heavens it’s spreading to the NSW town of Armidale (I\u2019ll let local MP Barnaby Joyce<\/a> explain).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why in the name of all thats sane is this government still burbling on about bunging 23,000 immigrants into jobs in and around regional Australia? Especially when regional Australia is apparently fit for these purposes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From the immigration policy presser – regional Australia apparently defined as not Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, the Gold Coast or Perth.<\/p>— Katina Curtis (@katinacurtis) March 20, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote>