THE STORY OF THE SQUIRREL AND THE GRASSHOPPER
POPULAR VERSION
The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building and
improving his house and
laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the squirrel is warm and well fed.
The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter, so
he dies out in the cold.
THE
AUSTRALIAN VERSION
**This then, pretty much sums up what's happening in Australia today, Lucky
country?
The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his
house and laying up
supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer
away.
Come winter, the squirrel is warm and well fed.
A social worker finds the shivering grasshopper, calls a press conference and
demands to know why
the squirrel should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less
fortunate, like the grasshopper,
are cold and starving.
The ABC shows up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper; with
cuts to a video of the
squirrel in his comfortable warm home with a table laden with food.
The Australian press informs people that they should be ashamed that in a
country of such wealth, this
poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have plenty.
The Greens, the Labor Party, Getup, Greenpeace, Animal Rights and The
Grasshopper Housing Commission of Australia
demonstrate in front of the squirrel's house.
The ABC, interrupting a cultural festival special from St Kilda with breaking
news, broadcasts a multi-cultural
choir singing 'We Shall Overcome'.
Bill Shorten rants in an interview with Laurie Oakes that the squirrel got rich
off the backs of grasshoppers,
and calls for an immediate tax hike on the squirrel to make him pay his 'fair
share' and
increases the charge for squirrels to enter Melbourne city centre.
In response to pressure from the media, the Government drafts the Economic
Equity and Grasshopper
Anti-Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The
squirrel's taxes
are reassessed
He is taken to court and fined for failing to hire grasshoppers as builders, for
the work he was doing
on his home, and an additional fine for contempt when he told the court the
grasshopper did not
want to work.
The grasshopper is provided with a Housing Commission house, financial aid to
furnish it and an account
with a local taxi firm to ensure he can be socially mobile.
The squirrel's food is seized and re-distributed to the more needy members of society - in this case the grasshopper.
Without enough money to buy more food, to pay the fine and his newly imposed retroactive taxes, the squirrel has to downsize and start building a new home.
A 60 Minutes special shows the grasshopper finishing up the last of the
squirrel's food, though spring
is still months away, while the Housing Commission house he is in, crumbles
around him because
he hasn't bothered to maintain it. He is shown to be taking drugs.
Sarah Hanson Young blames inadequate government funding for the grasshopper's
drug 'Illness'.
The
grasshopper gets arrested for stabbing an old dog during a burglary to get money
for his drugs habit.
He is imprisoned but released immediately because he has been in custody for a
few weeks.
He is placed in the care of the probation service to monitor and supervise him.
Within a few weeks he has killed a guinea pig in a botched robbery.
A commission of enquiry, that will eventually cost $10 million and state the
obvious, is set up.
Additional money is put into funding a drug rehabilitation scheme for
grasshoppers.
Legal aid for lawyers representing asylum seekers is increased.
The grasshopper dies of a drug overdose.
The usual sections of the press blame it on the obvious failure of government to
address the root causes
of despair arising from social inequity and his traumatic experience of prison.
The Greens and the Labor Party call for the resignation of the Prime Minister.
The squirrel, the dogs and the victims of the hijacking, the bombing, the
burglaries and robberies have
to pay an additional percentage on their credit cards to cover losses, their
taxes are increased
to pay for law and order, and they are told that they will have to work beyond
65 because
of a shortfall in government funds.
“Australian’s you are now discriminated against by your own weak politicians”
Remember this when you vote at the next election!
Speak or write to your local member and remind them what happened to political leaders in the UK and the USA who were not listening to their voters.
Signed- A Concerned Australian