Walking the walk: what happened to the good old days?

Ron Pike 18 December 2023 The Spectator Australia?

As an ‘Old Bushy’ who has a patriotic and passionate love of our country, its environment, its history, and the people who have implemented that history, I find myself questioning where we are going, or if we are going anywhere. It seems to me that we have gone from a robust, unified, we can achieve anything ‘Walk the Walk’ confident people, to doubting people who can only ‘Talk the Talk’.

I think back to our earliest settlers, who once they had crossed the Great Dividing Range, spread out and settled both valleys and vast plains. This landscape went from fertile black soil plains to windblown, depleted sandhills, incapable of worthwhile production and hindered by erratic weather. It did not blunt the determination and enthusiasm of these stoic settlers and their gallant wives. They had the vision to Talk the Talk, but the resolute determination to Walk the Walk, that resulted in the establishment of communities in verdant fields, ultimately connected by road and rail and powered by man-made electricity.

Our early settlers demonstrated with their achievements that they were both robust and resolute. They could Walk the Walk regardless of difficulties like unreliable weather.

A more recent example of leaders with both the vision to see what could be done and Talk the Talk to sell the concept to the Australian people and then have the political spine to Walk the Walk and make it happen against stout opposition, was PM Ben Chifley and his Minister for Works, Nelson Lemon, when Chifley boldly announced the Snowy Scheme with these words:

‘This plan is the greatest single project in our history. It is a plan for the whole nation, belonging to no one state or any group or section. This is a plan for the nation and it needs the nation to back it.’

The Australian people backed it and the building of this wealth-producing scheme was the catalyst for the unity that followed the flood of immigrants from war-torn countries of Europe. These settlers, many of whom were on opposite sides during the war, worked together, relaxed together, lived together, drank together, and unwittingly became Aussie mates together.

Successful completion of the Snowy Scheme proved to the average Aussie that we could combine with our new citizens and build infrastructure that would give Australian industry adequate and cheap power and water. I know this to be true because I was officially the first person to use ‘Snowy’ water when we commenced irrigating on Farm 1, Coleambally, in March 1960. It was a demonstration of Walking the Walk and for me an opportunity to develop grazing land into much more productive irrigated agriculture. I was starting a walk that would last for more than 40 years. Those years were character-building times of satisfying achievement. Never in those years did we lose sight of what we wanted to achieve and never did we doubt we could get there. We repeatedly increased yields and the efficiency of production and distribution. Every decision was motivated by a desire to be more efficient, more productive, and more profitable. Like the pioneers who preceded us, we had ‘no privilege of origin’ and ‘no hierarchy of descent’.

Our passport to Australian citizenship was an unwavering commitment to Australia. We loved our country and its people with passionate patriotism. From farmers to fabricators, from bakers to barmaids, from shearers to shed hands, from butchers to bricklayers, and publicans to prostitutes, we all had a ‘hands-on’ association in building our nation. We all worked to improve our station in life, but in so doing we built a prosperous nation.

So, what has changed that makes me now despondent for our prospects?

Have my eyes grown dim to our prospects; or do we now lack the will to Walk the Walk as our forebears did?

Sadly, I believe we have lost the will to be our best. Our best is when we have unity of purpose. But sadly, national unity has been replaced with ‘I want a bigger share’ and ‘I deserve a bigger share just because my forebears were here before yours’. This mean-spirited carping is destroying the unity that was the basis of our successful development. Race has become more important than citizenship. Multiculturalism has become the war cry when it should be, ‘I am Australian and I am proud of it!’ My culture is Australian and I am proud of that. It is a culture built on egalitarianism and mateship. A culture that was brutally nurtured on the shores of Gallipoli, the Kokoda Track, and the rugged landscape of Australia.

But when what I hear is a cacophony of rubbish from politicians of all parties loudly extolling the need to spend billions on Climate Change abatement, I know we can no longer Walk the Walk. We have been seduced by the Talk the Talk brigade to accept that which is false, that which will impoverish us. There is no greater disciple of the Talk the Talk brigade than the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen, who in the face of impending power outages is still pontificating the advantages of so-called renewable power. All Talk and no Walk.

So, how do we get our Nation to walk the walk to a more productive future?

First, we withdraw from the Paris Accord. We immediately halt all building of so-called ‘renewable power’ schemes.

Second, we commence building dams and low-head hydropower stations on most of our east coast rivers.

Third, we remove all tax and excise charges on diesel fuel, because most of our productive enterprises run on diesel, like transport, fishing, farming, mining, forestry and many others. Loss of income to the government will soon be recouped from tax on increased production.

Fourth, we immediately commence the production of our own diesel from shale resources in South Australia.

Fifth, we take the axe to the vast numbers of government and public service operatives. These now number around two and a half million people, or 10 per cent of our total population.

Sixth, we abolish sinecures of plenty for life which the government has legislated for themselves and their bureaucrats.

Seventh, with the axing of public service numbers, we must take the same axe to government regulations. When the people are free to work in their own best interests all they need from the government is access to the resources which should be their birthright.

Eighth, on completed dual carriageway highways like the Pacific and the Hume the speed limit be raised to 125 kilometres per hour.

Ninth, we encourage and assist Aboriginal people still living in third-world conditions to become proud Australian citizens based on the same education standards as their city counterparts.

Tenth, Aboriginal land claims and the right of Aboriginal activist groups to halt development, often on the most spurious of claims, should be halted. Aboriginal people should not have superior rights to other Australians.

If we had a government with the political will to implement these changes the Australian people would soon proudly be Walking the Walk to a better future.

AUTHOR Ron Pike