"I live in my friggen car": Aussie battler hailed as "caller of the year"
<div id="application" class="application ">An Aussie battler called Mark rang Rafael Epstein's ABC Drive show on Thursday night, revealing he is living in his car after losing his home due to the ongoing pandemic.</div>
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<p>He pleaded with politicians to stop saying Australians are “all in this together.”</p>
<p>The ABC host Rafael Epstein cut the man off, prompting concerned listeners to offer to give him money.</p>
<p>Mark delivered a searing slap down to those with safe and secure jobs on the ABC - and listeners are already dubbing him the 'caller of the year'.</p>
<p>Giving his name only as Mark, the Victorian called in to ABC Drive with Rafael Epstein on Thursday to deliver an emotion-charged tirade.</p>
<p><strong>We’re not ‘all in this together’</strong></p>
<p>“I keep hearing on the ABC ‘we're all in this together’, we're not,” said Mark. “We're not in this together,” he said of the COVID lockdowns gripping millions of Australians.</p>
<p>“The only time I actually want to hear that is when a politician or member of the media says: ‘I'll give half my salary to someone who just lost their house’, but we're never going to hear that are we?”</p>
<p>Mark pointed out this unequal burden on workers, adding the radio host still makes his normal salary - while tens of thousands of ordinary, working Australians are losing money and unable to work.</p>
<p>“And then we get the ABC, and I'm quite sure you guys aren't losing any money,” he said.</p>
<p>'Of course you're not, and you're earning big dollar,” Mark added. “It's an insult to hear ‘we're all in this together’. Because the simple fact of life is, life is not equal…</p>
<p>“We've got people losing their jobs, but we don't hear about the houses they're losing, rental or mortgage... and marriages.”</p>
<p>“Please, please just tell everyone in the ABC and everywhere else - stop saying it,” he added.</p>
<p>“There's enough stress, I live in my bloody car now, I live in my friggen car. I've lost everything,” Mark said.</p>
<p><strong>9-5 office workers have fared well in lockdown</strong></p>
<p>For those people working at 9-5 office jobs which can easily be done from home, lockdown has not been too difficult from a work perspective. But for other workers, the pandemic has proved to be a nightmare.</p>
<p>Thousands of workers have lost their jobs or some of their shifts because businesses and trades have shut down.</p>
<p>Mark explained he usually works along the border between Victoria and New South Wales and this has been difficult. He ended up losing his work and then his home.</p>
<p><strong>Epstein cut off Mark, fearing he would swear</strong></p>
<p>Mark then became emotional and Epstein cut him off - a decision he blamed on fearing Mark would swear.</p>
<p>”I can hear how angry you are and you're allowed to be angry,” Epstein said as he turned down Mark's microphone.</p>
<p>“We'll have a word, if we're able to have another word to you we will…No doubt the anger is real. I try to say often the burden is not born equally,” Epstein said.</p>
<p>The ABC radio host then tried to move on with the show but he was inundated with calls forcing him to revisit Mark's story.</p>
<p><strong>Support for Mark flooded in to the radio station</strong></p>
<p>“In response to Mark, some calling him caller of the year, I will repeat I've spoken up and down about the burden not being felt equally,” the ABC Radio host said.</p>
<p>“People are saying ‘let him vent, at least he's not being abusive’. There was potential for swearing and to be honest I wasn't sure the conversation would be good for Mark going forward,” he said.</p>
<p>Epstein said he then attempted to get Mark back on the line during a break but he’d “hung up”.</p>
<p>Epstein brought up Mark's call later in the show, reading out messages of support from listeners who have even offered to give him money.</p>
<p>“Messages flooding in; ‘He is 100 per cent correct’,” Esptein says of a listener.</p>
<p>“A ton of you are expressing concern about Mark. I don't have a way of contacting Mark.</p>
<p>“I'm not going to apologise on fading Mark out at that point. That's my job, to work out whether someone is appropriate and safe to go to air.</p>
<p>“Some of you are wanting to put money in his bank account, if Mark wants to call back I'm happy to have him on the radio, but I made that call, I'll stand by it and I'd do it again,” he added.</p>
<p><strong>Lockdowns meant to ease from October</strong></p>
<p>Lockdowns are meant to unwind from October when 70 per cent of the population aged 16 and over was fully vaccinated.</p>
<p>Despite this, some ABC personalities have ridiculed the idea of opening up with ABC Radio 702 broadcaster Wendy Harmer mocking the vaccination target because it didn't come with a specific date recently on Twitter.</p>
<p>'Um, PM hopes Phase B achieved by the end of the year but “we're not going to put timetables on it.” That's EXACTLY how you win Olympic Gold!’ she posted.</p>
<p>The Australian Bureau of Statistics has estimated more than one million Australians lost their job within the first two months of the pandemic last year.</p>
<p>With pubs, bars, restaurants and non-essential shops shut in NSW, Victoria and the ACT, millions have been forced to rely on government handouts to pay the bills.</p>
<p>Many businesses are on hold in Victoria and New South Wales due to ongoing battles with the Delta strain.</p>
<p>There are a number of federal and state government disaster relief and extreme hardship payments being offered - but for many people who are supporting families, it hasn't been enough.</p>
<p><em>Image: ABC Radio</em></p>
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