Do you feel like a 2nd class citizen?

The people of the Parkes electorate are treated like second class citizens by both sides of politics. The two major parties assume we are poor relations. The quality of life out here is disintegrating as services shrink. … City people wouldn’t stand for it. But country people put up with it. And they can’t blame anyone but themselves.

There’s an old saying: “People get the politicians they deserve.” That’s because they vote for them. There’s another old saying: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.” The majority of people in the bush vote for the same old Party. And so they get what they always got: declining living standards, shrinking services...

Every National Party politician I have met has been a decent, likeable person. I’d vote for them myself. But… “Remember Telstra”. The Nationals voted with the Howard Government to sell off the telephone company that you and I owned… that used to give country people subsidised services. Black Jack McEwen would never have stood for it. He had guts. Don’t vote for the politicians who took Telstra away. Shock them. You get no respect when you let them roll over you.

The Climate Change Coalition is not a city-based party. It was founded by people like you, who live in regional Australia. Our founder Patrice Newell and I are both primary producers.