I’ve been saying for a while now that it’s going to be a tough year.
However, I feel many people – including seniors – simply don’t want to know, burying their heads in the sand, so to speak.
Many seniors have lived through difficult times before and managed to come out the other side. They own their homes, spend wisely and live modestly, but even they are beginning to feel the strain.
Petrol prices may be down for now, but they are bound to rise again, no matter what governments say.
Nearly everything we touch in daily life has some derivative of oil in it – plastics, packaging, even the humble toothbrush, along with countless other household items.
Read the labels and you’ll see how much we rely on imports from countries such as China, South Africa, Bangladesh and Belgium. Very little seems to be made in Australia anymore.
Even our own gas is often cheaper overseas than it is here at home. We have few refineries left, despite being a country rich in minerals – gold, silver and rare earths among them.
Australia is a wealthy nation in resources, yet at times it feels as though we fail to make the most them.
Mining and exploration companies spend millions of dollars, often raised privately, searching for these resources.
Yet when projects begin succeeding, governments often increase royalties, cutting into the profits of the very companies taking the risks in the first place.
Still, Australia remains a lucky country – rich in minerals and blessed with water, although sometimes too much of it.
Our health system is regarded as one of the best in the world, yet there are always those who exploit it.
The NDIS is once again under review. It is a complicated system with many shortcomings, but hopefully those issues are being addressed over time.
If we could wave a magic wand and pipe water from North Queensland down to drought-stricken regions in the south, more people could settle there, more jobs could be created, and regional Australia might thrive once again.
Then perhaps we truly could become, once more, “The Lucky Country”.
