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A South Betoota teenager who has a healthy relationship with both her mum and dad has not yet found a reason to hate people, it has been confirmed.
Despite facing all the same anxieties and pressures that most teenage girls face in senior school, Elyse Peters (17) has not yet had anything happen to her that would be easily blamed on immigrants or Aboriginal people.
Elyse’s dad, Ryan, says he knows there hasn’t always been much money around during Elyse’s childhood, but both he and his wife feel they have made up for it by by being as emotionally available as possible.
It seems to have worked, because so far, Elyse hasn’t found herself wearing a mask and burning wooden crosses in The Grampians while yelling Heil Hitler.
“The last thing I wanted to do was be a flakey Dad”
“I turned down a job in the mines for that reason, I guess I just wanted to be around for when she needed me most”
Elyse says that while she realises that there are communities that access a bit more government assistance than her family, she acknowledges that her family were just very lucky to not have had to experience the heartache of living with a lack of opportunity or safety.
“I guess I’m lucky to never know what it sounds like to hear a bomb dropping from the sky, or how it feels to lose a loved one to a preventable disease” she says.
“Maybe one day they’ll be able to live a life as blessed as mine was, I hope so”
However, Elyse’s neighbour and childhood crush, Benno (17) says he’s always been a bit more sceptical of immigrants, especially since his dad started watching Sky News.
“Mate, why should they get to come here with their beautiful families and enjoy days out in the park with their tight knit migrant community who look after one another” he says as his eyes well with tears.
“I’m sick off them. I can’t even find a job and they get to work in their dad’s shop after school!”
