Screw them all

I reached a snapping point driving to work this morning.  My radio was tuned to 97.7 FM, which is ABC Goulburn Murray.  What did the tagline for the broadcast say?  It informed me I was listening to "774 ABC Melbourne (and ABC Victoria)".  This was followed by the weather for Melbourne.  And the traffic. For Melbourne.  And then stories with no apparent importance to the Goulburn Valley or indeed anyone in regional Australia.


People following the news will have read of the now-approved changes to the ABC's regional broadcasting schedule.  We're assured that this simply means

extend[ing] the 'Breakfast' programs and introduc[ing] a new feature-based program ... to run from 10am to 11am. ... The local 6.30am, 7.30am and 12pm news bulletins will still be produced locally and remain unchanged. Other bulletins will be produced externally, with local stories dropped into the bulletin.

And if you believe that these changes won't morph into local radio simply relaying broadcasting for Melbourne and Sydney, I have a beachfront property at Mildura on which you like to make an offer.


This is of a piece with the reports in the last ten days that only

four of 109 new mobile phone towers promised to fix Victoria’s blackspots have been built, ... [leaving] Victorians in some of the state’s most fire-prone regions at risk of missing out on vital emergency information

Recycled radio, patchy phone coverage, and the thousand-and-one other slights are handed to people who live outside the major cities. Can you imagine western Sydney or the Melbourne sandbelt being treated like this?  No, you cannot.


Screw them all.  Screw. Them. All.  It doesn't matter how 'passionate' your local MP is, or what a 'great advocate' they claim to be.  If they can't deliver, all you've got is someone who can talk the talk and not much else.


Come the next election, vote for anyone, as long as you put your sitting member last and their main rival second last. 


It's time to be angry.