A recent rural newspaper poll has concluded that the urban myth that farmers are a bunch of ageing rural red-necks living in isolation on their land has been well and truly busted.
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Well, howdy doody. But getting that message across to urban Australia is a hard slog, given a growing disconnect to rural regional areas.
Once upon a time, many Sydney-siders had family in regional areas. No more. In fact, polls have shown that city kids don’t even know where their meat, milk or myriad of other agricultural products come from, and how.
The Weekly Times report showed that regional residents are more engaged with their communities than city folk and often more progressive, less religious and farmers are increasingly female, albeit many with secondary employment too.
That report claimed that while some regional politicians might oppose climate change, renewables and same sex marriage, most of their constituents hold a very different view.
As National Farmers Federation leader Fiona Simson tweeted in response, one myth down but many to go! She’s spot on. It begs the question of whether some regional pollies really belong in rural Australia – or whether they need to get with it, and with us.
Every rural and regional electorate in southeast Australia voted in favour of same sex marriage, including New England with nearly 52%.
Census figures show most in the bush are less religious than urban dwellers – maybe more to do with the diversity of metro demographics, but look around you and you see an ever dwindling number of us who go to church, or follow a faith.
Regionals are embracing the race for renewable energy – witness the Glen Innes, Inverell and Moree wind farm and solar developments, and the rush by other regional towns to attract more of these projects.
In 2017, a poll of 1000 voters in NE voted for further investment in renewables, and 60% were in favour of a clean energy target.
It is a sure sign that we’ve moved on, are progressive, and in some cases our politicians haven’t but need too.