Oasis Magazine - Cairns & Tropical North Queensland Issue 29 - Apr | May 2019 | Page 9
Eggs-ercising
YOUR RIGHTS
WARNER’S CORNER
DAVE WARNER
Star 102.7
Heads up people! There’s an election
on the way and the following politically
opinionated rant may offend. I should
also point out that my opinion doesn’t
necessarily represent the views of this
fine magazine’s publisher.
A few years ago, after an intensely
spirited discussion that ended in tears
– mostly mine - my Mum and I agreed
we would never debate politics again.
We’ve always been able to talk about
any topic and respect each other’s
opinion but weirdly we stood at
opposite ends of the political spectrum
and that’s where things went south – or
left and right, if you will. And I say
weirdly because most people inherit
their political ideology from their
parents. Not this little black sheep. She
was a fangirl evangelist in the church
of Tony Abbott, and apart from Fraser
Anning there’s not a politician in this
country I think less of. When He
declared ‘coal is good for humanity’ I
suspect Mum went out and bought
bags of the stuff - to bathe in, cook
with, sprinkle around the garden
and maybe drop a little lump into
her chamomile tea. The leaders
I’m attracted to have a social and
environmental conscience, two things I
suspect the former PM had surgically
removed at circumcision. If you’re still
reading, I’ll come back to this part of
the story later.
Recently in Cairns and around the
world
students
exercised
their
democratic right to assemble in protest
of climate change inaction and the
subsequent slap down from our
government, older generations and
social media was intense and quite
frankly for mine, infuriating. Reflecting
on it now, I can feel the heat rising in
my body - not a coal powered heat - but
a human powered renewable energy
that I will keep generating in support of
our kids, who believe it or not, are
passionate about the future of this
planet. ‘How many would have turned
up if it was held on a Saturday’ was the
cry from the outraged who dismissed
this action as an opportunity to ‘wag’
school for a whole two hours on a
Friday morning – which, completely
misses the point! Many vital industries
strike at Christmas for a reason; to
create disruption and noise to get their
message heard. ‘It’s damaging their
education’ was another theme - our
kids education doesn’t start and stop in
a classroom, hats off to parents who
take their kids out of school for 6
months to travel around Australia – so
please stop sooking about two hours
outside the curriculum. There was also
a post on social media, written by an
idiot, and liked/shared by many more
that starts with an own goal – ‘You
are the first generation to require
air-conditioning in schools’ – could be
a good reason for that? And it ends with
‘you are selfish, badly educated, virtue
signalling little turds… wake up, grow
up and shut up’. Wow! One woman,
clearly stuck in the 1950’s, posted
‘children should be seen and not
heard’. The way these entitled old
sheep belittle and underestimate our
kids really gets my goat.
Back to Mum. She’s just turned 73 so
she’s held her rusted on political views
for decades and late last year we
had another incident that once again
ended in tears – and this time they
were all mine. On an overcast and
drizzly Saturday morning I watched her
standing waist deep in water in the
Cairns Esplanade Lagoon, with her
grandchildren on either side of her,
proudly holding a ‘Stop Adani’ placard
above her head at a Save the Reef rally.
Extraordinary. The climate’s not the
only thing that’s changing.
To my Mum, my wife, my children and
the students of Far North Queensland -
I thank you for standing up for what you
believe in - and encouraging and
inspiring me to do the same. To our
former PM, coal is not good for
humanity – humans who protect the
planet that sustains humanity, is good
for humanity.
BREAKFAST WITH
rÔ ¬¥
WEEKDAYS FROM 5.30AM
9