Bureaucracy, Bankers and Bastards: a farmer’s story

William ‘Bill’ Mott came from generations of farmers/graziers who never wanted anything else but to own their own land. Hard work, family and the sense of community were pitted against the harsh reality of this ancient land and its climate of drought and flooding rain. Overseas wars had taken many of their own, but they had to believe it was for the greater good, for the safety of the land they worked and the preservation of a history and culture they held dear. But then rural Australia was hit by a tsunami of institutional dishonesty, greed and corruption, poor bureaucratic legislation, and conflicted and complicit governments. Bill Mott had trusted his bank and lost everything: his land, his home, his livelihood, his future, his children’s inheritance and his marriage. But giving up was not in Bill Mott’s DNA. Australians were unaware of how much Australian-owned agriculture had been lost; how many farming families and their communities had perished; and how Australia’s food and water security was endangered. For Bill Mott, it was a seven-year battle before he beat the bank, but the fight was about more than that; because ‘the Bureaucracy, Bankers and Bastards’ should never be allowed to win.