Towns are born, and towns die.
asserted
towns → bear → ?
In once-prosperous farming towns, six hours between Melbourne and Sydney, the pubs are shut, and weatherboard homes are boarded up.
asserted
homes → shut → Melbourne
The rain has come, turning pastures into fields of green.
asserted
rain → come → green
But resentment runs deep: over illegal clearing prosecutions, net zero, fuel prices, stagnating local economies, and a city-country divide that is fuelling distrust about decisions being made in the capitals.
asserted
that → run → capitals
Fewer jobs mean fewer people.
asserted
jobs → mean → people
“If you bring the people out, then services come as well, but they can’t come out because there are no bloody services,” says Keith Rowe, a farmer in West Wyalong, a six-hour drive from Sydney and Melbourne.
asserted
Rowe → bring → Sydney
“We really need more new people coming into our town.
asserted
We → need → town
And we don’t care how that mix is made up.”
asserted
mix → care → ?
No political party has been able to break the economic cycle of decline in parts of regional Australia.
asserted
party → break → Australia
Fewer people means schools and shops close.
asserted
schools → mean → ?
Children leave.
asserted
Children → leave → ?
Now it’s 43.
asserted
it → ’ → ?
In nearby Grenfell, it’s 52.
asserted
it → ’ → Grenfell
The impact compounds as the years roll on, then steams home when those left behind realise all they once knew might one day be gone.
uncertain
they → compound → ?
“I think about it a lot,” says Rowe.
asserted
Rowe → think → it
“It’s a real serious dilemma we’ve got.”
asserted
we → ’ → ?
Rowe’s friend, farmer Rod Hardie, issues this warning: “The current system, the current economy, the current way things are running – we won’t be here.”
asserted
we → issue → warning
Once upon a time the Nationals were the natural representatives of the vast tracts of land spanning Nicholls and Mallee in Victoria and the Riverina and Parkes in NSW.
asserted
Nationals → span → NSW
One Nation’s victory in the Farrer by-election in May and its surging support in national polls mean that all four are now in play.
uncertain
four → surge → play
In One Nation’s regional policy mix, immigration falls behind water buybacks and anti-net zero.
asserted
immigration → fall → buybacks
Nevertheless, on a national scale, the party has harnessed the emotional impact of the perceived threat of immigration to its image of Australia, regardless of whether the large cuts it is proposing might do more harm than good to the economies it wants to represent.
uncertain
it → harness → economies
Betty Wu has owned the last Chinese restaurant in West Wyalong for three decades.
asserted
Wu → own → decades
Now she is voting for One Nation.
asserted
she → vote → Nation
“I’m voting for the lady,” she says, referring to One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who once claimed Australia was being “swamped by Asians” like Wu.
asserted
Australia → vote → Wu
“Something needs to change.”
asserted
Something → need → ?
Wu, who migrated to Australia from Guangdong in South China, once had multiple competitors along West Wyalong’s main drag.
asserted
who → migrate → drag
Nearby restaurant Lam and May has gone takeaway only.
uncertain
Lam → go → takeaway
At lunchtime on a Thursday, Wu sits alone in a banquet room, hoping someone will walk in.
asserted
someone → sit → room
“It’s hard,” she says.
asserted
she → ’ → ?
It’s so quiet.”
asserted
It → ’ → ?
Nearby, in the regional hub of Cowra, once a postwar centre for Eastern European migrants, the shift from farmhands to an increasingly mechanised workforce has reduced the working-age population, while its retirement-age population has surged.
“I suppose we are the old WASPS, the white Anglo-Saxon Protestants and Catholics; that’s virtually what the town is these days, and that’s probably why we’re so conservative,” says mayor Paul Smith.
asserted
Smith → reduce → population
More than 75 per cent of Cowra’s 12,000 residents have parents who were both born in Australia; those who weren’t were mostly born in England, Scotland or New Zealand.
asserted
who → have → England
A quarter of the town is aged 65 or over.
asserted
quarter → age → 65
Meeting the needs of that population has become more challenging.
asserted
Meeting → meet → population
“I go to mayors’ conferences, and they’ve all got the same problem,” says Smith.
asserted
Smith → go → problem
“We have a brand-new hospital, which is more attractive to young graduates.
asserted
which → have → graduates
The thing is, to get a doctor here, you have to have work for their partner.
asserted
you → get → partner
Now, if they’re another doctor, there’s no trouble.
asserted
they → ’re → ?
But if they are an engineer … that can make it difficult.
asserted
it → make → ?
This is the paradox facing One Nation.
asserted
This → face → Nation
…and 93 more, not listed.
The Aporia
