I don’t know about the rest of you from Tasmania but I don’t think we get a fair go when we are portrayed on national Television. Living over here on "The Mainland" as I do, I still go through the ritual of listening to the inane inbred, and incest jokes whenever I mention that I come from Tasmania. ("I have probably heard your joke and could probably tell you 20 others as well")

Usually it depends on my mood or the situation whether I smile fixedly or actually launch into a full scale defense of our Island state.

Having said that; I don’t often watch Television so if it is on in the background for whatever reason and the announcer mentions Tasmania, I fly over to the set to have a quick look. I am usually disappointed in that I don’t see anyone I know.

I was treated recently to watch an ABC documentary on quite late at night about Poverty in Tasmania. Despite the serious subject matter I was treated to a jolly good laugh whilst watching this show.

Who was the director ? Couldn't he see how ironic his choice of cast was in relation to his subject matter?

I missed the beginning so I wasn't actually aware what the show was about until the end when the title was flashed up on the screen along with the closing credits.

After seeing the title and reflecting on what I had just viewed I was confused.

Poverty in Tasmania? The woman who hailed from Queenstown was extolling to the camera following her around how she and her family were starving!

"Since the mine closed down, we have been forced to go on the dole"

Or in her case the single mothers support benefit.

We were treated to seeing inside her grotty, dirty little house (There is NO excuse for being dirty) where she showed us around and told us just how difficult it was to cope with just the pension to live on. For effect, she sat down at the rickety old table, lit up a Winny Blue, took a deep drag, stared directly into the camera, blew a cloud of smoke at it and completely straight faced told us how she and her family (of 5 children) were starving to death on the Pension.   "Some days there is so little money I have to go without food just so my five kids can eat" !!

The problem I had with this statement was; This lady weighed in at about 200 + pounds!! From the anomaly of her statement versus her weight I concluded that YES, maybe on some days she went without food, (I bet she still managed to puff her way through 25 Winny blue; at $6.00+ a packet x 7 = $42.00) but by the look of her, on other days she had more than her fair share of food. Before you call me a heartless bitch (which I will admit I am with these people)

I will go on to state that I bet she was living off takeaway. Takeaway costs a bloody fortune! With planning, I could go to the local supermarket and buy fresh vegetables and some type of meat, chicken or fish and still have spent only a fraction of the money I would have to spend buying takeaway every night.

To conclude the segment, (with a back drop of the barren hills around Queenstown) the interviewer introduced a dumpy, squat, intense looking woman, named Rexelle. Rexelle resplendent in predictable trackie daks and sweat shirt, summed up " What the people of Queenstown need is more government funding in the area of welfare".

Before I could even register my rage at the thought of these people getting more welfare; I was totally sidetracked by her name....REXELLE!!! Where in god’s name did she get a name like that? Goes well with another Tasmanian name I recently came across during the course of my working day, Keville Bott. With names and documentaries like this no wonder "Mainlanders" get an idea of Tasmanians looking a bit like this: -