Thriving Kids
In the Patchworky Ocean where rafts came apart, Folks bobbled on driftwood - left cold to the heart. So everyone hammered with hopeful, loud shouts “Every Australian Counts!” (they passed t-shirts about).
They built a BIG Lifeboat - the N-D-I -Yes! With room for the ones who had storms without rest. It floated on fairness with seats that were true, And a promise: “We’ll catch you when waves swallow you.”
A crowd on the dunes yelled, “Hip-hip, we’re afloat!” They painted the side: “This is everyone’s boat.” (Like Medicare’s lighthouse that brightens the night We all help to keep it for everyone’s light.)
Then sailed Captain Cost - Shift with charts made of “Should,” And Premier Pinch with a purse made of wood. They frowned at the Lifeboat, “It’s busy, it seems. Let’s toss out some kids – we need more submarines!”
“Hold on,” said the children. “When we just got warm! You don’t sink the ONE Lifeboat when in a storm!
A boat is for saving, not testing the sea Say it with us, please: ‘Don’t toss out kids!’ - agree?”
Up clanked a machine with a clickety click: The Cohort-o-Tron and its Budgety tick. It measured by averages, guessed from a group, Then handed out numbers with “snip-snippety-snoop.”
“But I’m me, not my cohort,” said Pax in a hat. “I need what I need - you can’t treat me like that.” “My storm isn’t typical,” whispered shy Bree. “Need-o-Meters hear some kids - it’s not hearing me.”
The sea scene went quiet. A gull scratched the sand. A rumour rolled in from the bureaucrat land: “There’s Thriving - Kids floaties bob-bobbing ashore (Just one little line here; we won’t say much more.) Floaties are fine, but a float can’t replace The Lifeboat you need in a long-stormy place.”
The story turned sandy-whoosh - desert and heat, Where waitlists were dunes and the water was beat. A single Oasis was bubbling and bright The N - D - I - Spring where you drink back your light.
“Let’s brick up the spring so more wells will appear,” Said Minister Maybe with bucket and gear. The children said, “Nope. That is drought-making lore. You don’t dry the only Spring to make towns dig for more.”
“Build more little waterholes close to our feet; Keep this Spring for those with a permanent need. And publish the maps; and send helpers who care; And pay for the travel so country folks share.”
They hoisted a banner with letters in gold: “Supports, not a cure. Leave no child in the cold.” “Start help without labels and keep us in view; A key worker walking each step that we do.”
And NO to block-funding the bush and the range “Choice” without choosing is not a fair change. Most can’t move to City-by-Sea - rents eat the day; That’s postcode discrimination - no choice, and no say.
Just bring supports rural - pay travel and time; Let us choose our helpers, in place, not a line. Floaties can help, but they’re not the big thing; Don’t trade the Lifeboat for a Reject Shop ring.
Then back to the shoreline the story once ran, Where Captain Cost-Shift tried one final plan
The Off-Ramp-o-Mat with a whoosh and a whirr: “Let’s nudge off the small ones and call that a cure.”
The crowd shook their heads with a thunderous “No!” A lifeship’s for storms; we don’t make kids go. We fix up the harbour, the weather, the pay Not children whose brains take a bendier way.
They painted the prow with a promise that sings: “This boat is for all of us funding all things. It belongs to us all, like the lighthouse we share So those who need helping will always find care.”
And just like a chorus the crowd learned to say, “Don’t kick the kids out. Add the new boats today. Don’t brick up the Spring to make more wells Build more wells and keep what helps.”
Now, listener, sailor, and sandcastle crew What would you do when a storm comes for you? Would you sink the safe Lifeboat, move to cities and towns, Or keep everyone’s Lifeboat where Everyone Counts?
- Bolshy Divas (with apologies to Dr Seuss)
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
- Dr. Seuss, The Lorax Text us via