Joe Hockey, which planet do you live on?
To Joe Hockey.
The news that a young homeless couple were found dead in their car was news that you would, in an indirect way, find offensive.
It was not their death that offended you, but a certain reaction to it.
But first to the young couple:
Police say the 27-year-old man and 24-year-old woman,
both from Ballarat and believed to have been living in the car, were
using a butane gas heater to keep the chill away when they died.
Most decent people – upon hearing of these tragic deaths – would have
in all likelihood been deeply saddened. The life situation of this poor
young couple was also tragic. As too it is with thousands of young
Australians living like this. Jobless. Homeless. Penniless. Desperate.
It is a sad reality that some jobless, homeless, penniless people
die. Thankfully, the numbers are small. The welfare system in Australia
has always provided something for those desperate people; a fortnightly
dole payment which could ensure they at least could have access to the
most basic of human needs; food, shelter, medications and clothing.
But now back to you.
You were offended that Wendy Harmer (of The Hoopla
fame) tweeted that this incident (the deaths in Ballarat) may not be
the last as your budget starts to bite. You fired back, with this
ignorant, pathetic response:
Image from The Daily Telegraph Pole – Facebook page
Really, which planet do you live on?
So it is your opinion that Wendy doesn’t think before she tweets.
Well I think she does. She obviously thinks more about the social
horrors that your budget will cause than you yourself have given a
moment’s thought to.
If you cannot fathom that people with no money for food or shelter
may die of hunger or exposure then you live on a different planet to the
one I do, Wendy does, or anybody I could care to name.
There is something else you don’t seem to understand: desperate
people do desperate things. Sleeping in a car is a measure of
desperation. As is by need going without food or medication.
None of this bothers you. If it does then I’m yet to see, read or
hear any indication of such. Yet you’re offended over a tweet though: a
tweet that spells out the bleeding obvious.
It’s not as though Wendy’s claim is any revelation. Since the budget
was handed down (and even before it was handed down) to a shell-shocked
nation the media has been filled with the predictions this horror budget
will cause. People could die. People could also turn to crime if their
survival depends on it. You can read such predictions here and again here on news.com.au. Or here on theage.com.au. Or here from the chronical.com.au. Or on dozens of other sites, if you care to look, as I have.
And don’t just stop at the articles: have a look at reader’s
comments. They have been predicting the same social destruction echoed
by Wendy.
If you had been alert to what people were saying then I can assume
that you would have been offended long before Wendy’s tweet. I can’t
find any indication that you’ve been aware of not only how people feel,
but of the tragic fate that awaits many of them. I’m guessing that you
haven’t listened to anyone, except of course, the highly paid
bureaucrats that are paid to tell you what you want to hear.
That you should only now stop to listen, and in response spew forth
the shock and horror of being offended at the cold hard truth, is
behaviour I find difficult to comprehend.
If the ‘age of entitlement’ is over – as you have been constantly
trumpeting in an effort to justify your cruel budget – then I guess it
means that people are no longer entitled to secure and basic needs. I
find that truly offensive. Repulsively so.
Mr Hockey, brace yourself. Your days of being offended have only just begun.
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