If anyone had told me two years ago that this state would suffer through its worst drought in history, the worst bushfires in history, floods and a one-in-100-year pandemic I am not sure I would believe them.
But yet here we are and over the past two years I have seen the very best of people that often brought me to tears.
As our communities battled drought, bushfires and the global pandemic it was our city cousins who did everything in their power to make sure our communities kept their heads above water. What I remember most was the way city kids rolled up their sleeves and did whatever they could to help kids like them in the bush.
Campaigns to raise money, school communities in Sydney fundraising to give country kids a holiday, a campaign that saw city kids write Christmas cards to those in the bush to try and lift their spirits.
Take 12-year-old Jack Berne from the Northern Beaches who established the charity “Fiver for a Farmer” that has gone on to raise more than $1.8 million for regional communities.
The black summer bushfires that devastated our communities across the length and breadth of this state still haunt me.
It was people from the city who donated millions of dollars, who booked their holidays to ensure businesses survived and it was the people from the city who stepped up and helped in any way they could.
NSW has managed the last 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic relatively unscathed, but with the onset of the delta variant and a largely unvaccinated population the pandemic has taken its grip.
Some tough decisions have been made over the last five weeks – but none tougher than being faced with nearly 20,000 year 12 students being denied the very basic right of sitting their HSC.
The diversion of some of those Pfizer vaccines earmarked for the regions is short term and we will continue to see more and more vaccines become available over the next few weeks and regional NSW will be the first to see those top ups.
But let’s be clear – Sydney is burning now. It would be like in the middle of the black summer bushfires and the South Coast was burning and the Hornsby RFS decided not to help – there would have been outrage.
Or it would be like denying those year 12 students during the bushfires the chance to get their HSC.
How is this any different?
If I’m honest, I have seen some of the worst of people over the last few days – a race to the bottom as to who is more worthy of a vaccine.
We have successfully kept COVID as far away from the bush as possible but the biggest threat to that is the growing spread of the virus in South West and Western Sydney.
And we need to do everything to keep it at bay and well away from regional NSW.
When there is a drought, we pray for rain, when the fires rage, we send in the fireys, and when a community is crippled by a virus, we send in the vaccine. After natural disasters everyone is quick to say that regional NSW is tough and resilient.
On the other side of this pandemic, how does regional NSW want to be remembered, when we had the opportunity to return the favour to our city cousins?
John Barilaro, NSW Deputy Premier
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