ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
A double-feature story on grey nomads being mildly inconvenienced by border closures over the wet season in the Weekend Advocate failed to net any sympathy from anybody, a survey has found.
The story, which was paid in part by the Association of Oppressed Landlords, focused on the tale of Ben & June Bornes.
Mr and Mrs Bornes, both 71 of Brisbane, said their plans were derailed last year because of state border closures and politicians should be thinking of what the human impact is of closing borders before they do it.
“We have paid our taxes all our lives,” said June.
“Which means we should be allowed to go to Western Australia whenever we like. We haven’t been to a major city for months now. I think people like us are the forgotten victims in this border war.”
Ben nodded.
Speaking over the top of our female reporter, the retired solicitor said he didn’t treat himself to a brand new Sahara for no reason.
“I’m sorry, girly,” he said.
“But this is a serious problem we have here. There’s a major disconnect here between people like us and the politicians,”
“Don’t they understand they work for us? Look at what the Labor Party has done today. They’ve scrapped their capital gains and negative gear tax policies because they’ve finally worked out who they work for,”
“Not some short-haired, loud woman in the city. They work for people like me. A white man over 50 with a large personal wealth,”
“Now, hear me when I say, Mark McGowan. You open that border before I send Kerry Stokes an email.”
Another grey nomad we spoke to said not all grey nomads are like Ben and June but in the interests of balance for this story, The Advocate’s editorial team decided to ignore that fact.
More to come.
