COUNTRY people know what it is like to be dismissed and forgotten about.
Who can forget their anger when smug city economists dismissed pushes for drought assistance saying such measures were simply propping up unviable businesses or when official government agencies such as the Productivity Commission flagged leaving small towns to die.
Now the boot is on the other foot.
Rural economies are booming off the back of strong agricultural prices, you cannot buy a property in the self-same 'ghost towns' the PC just years ago recommended abandoning and changing work patterns with a greater ability to work from home have more people than ever seriously thinking about making a permanent tree change.
In contrast, people in our urban hubs have copped an absolute battering as a result of COVID-19.
Especially in cities such as Melbourne a lockdown weary population has zero confidence in the roadmap to COVID normal, the hospitality industry will take years to look like a semblance of what it once was and those operating in the CBD fear with more people staying at home they also will suffer irreversible damage to their businesses.
Just as living through droughts, floods and mouse plagues is difficult to explain to those in the cities, equally we in regional Australia cannot fully understand just how tough COVID has been for others.
Having been through tough times ourselves we need to show a little bit of empathy to our cousins in the cities.
Gloating regarding the woes of our capital cities, such as the bizarre rant from the new deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce where he said country people 'don't give a shit' about the problems in the cities and that in regards to Melbourne you could 'smell the burning flesh from here', is not what we're about as regional Australians.
Pleasingly, several of Mr Joyce's colleagues at both a federal and state level stepped in to criticise his comments and demand an apology.
Mr Joyce may think this circus of mocking what he sees as an easy target might be a vote winner but this type of race to the bottom is yet another example of how out of touch with much of rural Australia the current Nats hierarchy is.
Sure, we might moan occasionally about the far-fetched ideas of the chardonnay set in regards to agricultural policy and have a laugh at the shiny 4WDs making their yearly trip down a gravel road but overall we realise we're all Australians.
Just as the city would battle without the food and fibre from rural Australia so too would we struggle without the big population centres.
Who would buy our high-end produce? Who would provide the valuable cash injections that short stay tourism provides?
Instead of sinking the boots in and enjoying the schadenfreude, now is a time to extend a helping hand or even just a sympathetic ear.
There are the obvious moral obligations to help those doing it tough but there are also practical considerations.
Already, Mr Joyce's comments have attracted attention, with talkback radio callers saying they would seriously reconsider their donations for rural Australia in its times of need if this was how its figurehead responded.
Social licence is set to be a massively important topic in coming years and with topics like water consumption, such a big issue in Mr Joyce's own part of the world needs to be considered.
The irrigated cropping sector is already under increasing scrutiny from urban consumers with their own preconceptions and the last thing agriculture needs is increased alienation from those people due to these types of comments.
Also, let's not forget pride coming before a fall.
We're flying economically in rural Australia once again but we farm on the most arid populated continent in the world and the next drought is always just around the corner.
Further divisive commentary may find the overwhelming, if occasionally misguided, support the cities gave us during the last drought, may dwindle.
Mr Joyce may think it is a winning move playing off the hackneyed old town and country stereotypes but mocking those that are doing it tough is as far from the country way of doing things as you can get and our representatives, of all people, need to be better.