Voters growing tired of conservatism

Subsequently, it would be safe to assume, I imagine, that we live in a remarkably conservative part of Australia.

We had an independent state member in Suzanna Sheed, for eight years, and she was responsible for some $2 billion coming into the electorate. Rob Priestly contested the Federal seat as an independent, making Nicholls marginal when he narrowly lost the election.

And so our attachment to conservatism may not be as locked in as appearance suggests, but moving about the community, it is difficult to find many prepared to put their head above parapet and declare they want something different.

But times are changing and numbers from recent elections illustrate that Australia’s major political parties are becoming of lesser import to voters — the primary vote of Labor, Liberal and Nationals is in steady decline with voters looking elsewhere for someone or something they can trust, a person or party they can engage with and is beyond the influence of the lobbyists.

My understanding of this area’s politics is somewhat Shepparton-centric — I guess many imagine me as a latte-sipping greenie who enjoys smashed avocado — but in campaigning for the “Yes” vote in 2023 Voice to Parliament referendum exposed me to some unsavoury beliefs in the broader Nicholls area.

Conservatism, or it is populism, is alive and well in the area, as just a few days ago, I listened as a fellow in Mooroopna (not a local) lamented the collapse of forest logging and blamed “bloody greenies” for ending this thriving industry.

Driving home that same day, a caller to an ABC radio talkback program was bitter in his complaints about his local council removing 52 carparks just to plant some trees.

Fortunately, another caller quickly challenged that view, pointing out that if we are ever to deal with the dilemmas of an unfolding climate crisis we need more trees and fewer cars.

The misunderstanding of what needs to be done was further illustrated when Mr Birrell said his National Party proposed an “all-technology approach”.

He said, according to a report in this newspaper, that “all-technology” primarily referred to coal, gas and eventually nuclear.

For weeks now I have sought an interview with Mr Birrell as I’m eager to understand from where he gets his information.

I’m eager to know why we should be turning to coal, gas and even nuclear for our energy when renewables are vastly cheaper, can be deployed right now as we understand the technology.

Australia’s coal-fired power stations are at the end of their useful life, gas can be shown go be as damaging to our atmosphere as coal, and nuclear is most certainly more than a decade away, is too expensive and, in the view of many, too dangerous.

And Mr Birrell needs to read Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet by climate scientist, Kate Marvel, who says: “We clearly have no hope of preventing climate change; it’s already here”.

She adds, “The world is more than 1.3°C warmer than it was before the Industrial Revolution (Australia is even hotter). It will get hotter still. “We will not get a fairy-tale ending, maybe not even a tolerably happy one. Hope is difficult to cling to in these circumstances, and in the carnage on the news or outside my window I sometimes feel it slip away.”

I have two kids, three grandsons and its for them I worry as I’m sending them to a place from which they won’t return, a place which in no way will be comparable to what I have enjoyed, but a place which Mr Birrell and his contemporaries can impact, favourably, if they abandon their misplaced allegiance to fossil fuels.