The Village

Every now and then I travel to a small and remote village in Australia - one that is hidden well away and which the rest of the world bypassed some decades ago. I visit because I have family there and because it has rather beautiful and stunning scenery and looks like an idyllic little place. Plus the fishing is great - and there is a good coffee shop.

Those are the good things.

The other thing is that it is in a time warp and has been that way forever.

It is about 20 years and a half an hour behind the eastern states. And because it is so remote the locals have evolved differently. They have developed as Darwin hypothesised - the big fish own it and run it - the little fish are the slaves. And the rewards are similarly skewed with the big fish taking the biggest share and the little fish living on crumbs.

This is a place that not only time has bypassed - but also the state regulators seem not to have noticed. Because some of the work practices are atrocious. The place has more than its share of millionaires and more than its share of paupers - figure that out.

This is a place where there are a large number of working poor. These are the folks who have some sort of a job - usually not a very good one - and who also need welfare and other support systems to help them survive a bad week.

There are also a number of obscenely wealthy people who got that way for three reasons.

* Their families were granted licenses to exploit natural resources for zip back in the 1960's - by a seriously dumb state government that was looking to "develop the state".

* They have exploited those resources big time - it's made them rich but the resources are now worn out and on life support.

* They have also exploited their workers - paid them zip and they think the government will continue to ignore their bad behaviour.

There are a number of big fish who have put the money they scammed from their workforces and the free resources into *toys* - some of which float at the marina and others that are big and black and have 4 wheels. Not what you are thinking Virginia ;-)

This is the "wild west" folks - it exists today in Australia but is well hidden from the mainstream media - and the state regulators - and it is what phony Tony and his crew apparently want for the rest of us.

I don't think so.