Speaking to numerous ABC faithful since the new regime has taken the reins, there is much disgust that the funerals notices are not being broadcast on “our radio station”.

If there is one thing that country people are renowned for is the respect we have for one another and particularly so at the time of death, whether young or old. 

Friendships formed in sporting clubs, service clubs, women’s and men’s groups, the arts, church bodies, boards, committees, industry and trades and farming connections are just a sample of the way people get to know and respect one another and form bonds that that are significant and principled.

On a personal level, having lived my entire 65 years in the Bega Valley and having ancestry going back to the 1850s as the result of the large families of yesteryear, I have countless relatives spread up and down the South Coast, across the Monaro and beyond.

Further, we have lately experienced a death in our family. Since then we have been contacted by a considerable number of people embarrassed they missed the funeral and that up until recently they had relied on ABC South-East for their funeral advice.

I’ve heard it said that we were the only area that received the funeral notices.  So what – why can’t we stand out from the crowd and be different?

This is meant to be the people’s radio and these notices normally take up less than a minute four or five times a week.  That’s not much to ask.

One understands that when someone new steps into an existing role that he or she anticipates to imprint something of their character into the job. Take what exists and build on it. Don’t tear down what is functioning successfully. 

It’s time for the decision makers to be humble enough to admit that they got it wrong and reinstate the regular scheduling of funeral notices on our ABC Radio.

In 1988 I was a research fellow at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. My time there included delivering workshops and lectures on social policies coming out of Victoria under the Cain/Kirner governments.

I can clearly remember being proud of what we had achieved and the ways in which we were up there as world leaders when it came to protecting the rights of vulnerable people, and many of the policy makers in Baltimore were more than impressed with our record.  

Last Monday night I watched the ABC’s Australian Story which told the distressing story of a young woman we are currently in the process of detaining and possibly deporting back to Iran. Then followed Four Corners and the shocking revelations about the treatment of juvenile boys in detention.

Then there was a report about Doctors for Refugees, highlighting the potential criminal charges professionals face if they reveal information about the conditions under which refugees are living.

I despair that in a wealthy, peaceful and privileged society such as ours that we are actually going backwards when it comes to the treatment of those in need of support.

I’m sure most of us congratulate the PM on his decision to establish a Royal Commission into this latest example of our failure to treat Indigenous people with respect.  

I cannot help but think that our inability to reconcile with the first people of this nation lies at the root of our growing inability to respond to the needs of others.

What will it take to return to the days when at least some leaders worked with communities to tackle problems that can be addressed in a resource-rich country?

I don’t normally despair, but this week I am glad I do not have to give an account of my community in an overseas country.