Australia's streets are flooded with drugs. We consume more of it than any other country in the world, and we pay more for it than anywhere in the world: a perfect storm for the total destruction of a civilised society. When you think of Australian actors, you probably think of Margot Robbie, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, and Eric Bana—in that order, but rack your brain and search your mind deeply with the question, “Has any Australian celebrity spoken about Australia’s methamphetamine crisis?” The chances are that you cannot name one celebrity that operates on the world stage in major motion picture studio productions that has spoken about the drug crisis back on the home soil that they left.

When I hear a drug addict outside my bedroom window in Richmond yelling obscenities at 2am, I put my headphones in and listen to some RnB. Anything from PartyNextDoor to Jeremih or Al Green. I love RnB. That sort of music helps because it reminds us that love is a great priority held up on high and that the pursuit of two lovers lasting forever is greater than the pursuit of fleeting and drug-induced joy. The chemicals that get released in your head when you inject, smoke, snort drugs are similar to love but they are not love.

The effects of methamphetamines on the brain are more akin to a one night stand where the other party has left before you have even woken up, leaving you feeling dirty and worthless and used. When you have a voice, a platform, influence, it is incumbent on you to use that voice for the betterment of society, and especially that of your own countrymen. So where are Australian celebrities in our continuing moment of crisis? Probably eating spicy chicken wings with Sean Evans or telling Architectural Digest about their gauche, kish, antique, meaningless, and entirely vapid decor.

Let’s get the statistics out of the way. Personally, I don’t believe people even read commonly anymore because writing news articles and watching nothing change has embedded some tangible pessimism inside me. Here are the rates of illicit drug use in Australia, and here are statistics detailing that the leading cause of death for 1 in 3 Australians aged 15-44 is suicide. Why? Because we are being failed. Yes, by politicians and law-makers, but also and not unimportantly, by Australian celebrities who have left the Australian plight of drug use behind.

A naive part of me, an idealistic and pure part of me that I hope has not died, used to think that the entire point of attaining fame was to bring awareness to important issues of the place where you were born—I suppose in reality the central modus operandi of fame is to bring attention to your next film, event, or endorsement. I don’t want to raise children in this world just so they can get to an age where music is their only solace in a society tattered and falling apart as decency and empathy fall by the wayside to greed and addiction.

The uncomfortable conversations are the ones that are most worth having. For these stars and idols of popular culture to simply ignore and neglect the plight of the Australian people is a disgrace. No, they are not politicians—should they have to be? They have the whole world watching. All I wanted was to watch them do some good—is that too much to ask? No, it is not. It is the least that they can do.

I wonder how they thought of Australia before they left to Los Angeles to audition or sing for some finely suited executive and prove their worth. Maybe they only ever thought of themselves. In the current state of technology and media, politicians have less volume in their speeches than celebrities and pop culture icons—this is just a not-so-far-fetched guess, I don’t have a link to back that up, I just think that the kids don’t listen to dusty and uncharismatic politicians, and if they do, they are forcing themselves to suffer their mediocrity in order to learn about policy changes.

Politicians are the “this could have been an E-mail” kind of people. We don’t want their friendship—we want their service, we want their blood, sweat, and tears, we want to know that they care. Deep in our hearts, since birth, we have wanted to know that someone cares. An integral piece in the puzzle of humanity is empathy, so where is it to be found? The media does not fulfil its unspoken obligation to promote peace and empathy, why? I wonder how they sleep at night knowing that the country they came from is suffering from addiction and homelessness. They might play the what-about game in their head to make it all better, but nothing is getting better.

Lately, I have been listening to Tems, I have been listening to Charlie Wilson, I have been listening to Roy Woods, I have been listening to PartyNextDoor, I have been listening to Vory, I have been listening to the deafening silence of Australian celebrities on Australia’s drug problem. It hurts, we are hurting because we feel lost and abandoned, not because they left Australia physically, but because they left Australia mentally. On behalf of regular Australian citizens, for any Australian celebrity with half a damn to give, please do better. It is not about remembering where you are from—it is about observing where Australian citizens are at right now.