Resilience platitudes are one of the costs of living in a disaster zone.
The cost of living is the top election issue the pundits tell us. The environment barely rates a mention. Yet the cost of living in a war zone battling the forces of nature is top of the agenda for many of us on the front line.
The climate is making our environment uninhabitable, crushing our economy, threatening our homes and our lives. How can any community prosper and succeed when everything they build is washed away in a passing storm?
Preparing for the onslaught and recovering from disasters takes a lot of energy and resources, it’s stressful and exhausting. Muttering platitudes about tough, resilient communities is just not good enough. We’re left carrying the can for all the shit decisions made by our governments, our planners, the architects, engineers and public works department who didn’t get it right.
We’re paying the cost, fixing up our roads, and drainage, the powerlines and driveways and our homes, over and over again in this insane, endless cycle. A cost-of-living spiral that draws in more victims with each passing year. Survivors are impoverished by the cost of rebuilding their lives. Too many are still living on the streets in vans or temporary shelters with nowhere to go and no way out.
Punters are worried about the hip pocket and we’re pissed off when we see business as usual.
New gas plants and coal mines get approved and subsided, while big business avoids tax and resists the transition to renewals. Governments just won’t stand up for the environment and protect our communities from harm. In fact, both state and feds have created new harsh laws to punish and discourage environmental protectors. They’re literally trying to silence us and kill us.
We need our government to fix the root cause that allows these disasters to impact adversely on our communities. We can’t take it anymore. We’re f***ing over it. Let’s punish those useless pollies at the ballot box!
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
