A traveller’s witch hunt
After travelling from interstate for a three-night stay in Cootamundra, driving in heavy rain and deplorable road conditions we decided to visit the local Tourist Information Centre.
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Normally one follows the very visible and apparent signs to these well informed display centres.
Cootamundra Council, where are you hiding this? Getting drenched, at three various addresses I inquired to the whereabouts of this. Two locals who were born here and another who has lived here only 10 years all had different ideas.
First stop was the railway station, only to be directed to the nearby Heritage centre. No, it is supposed to be in the spare room next door, but it is in the Arts centre in Wallendbeen Street. Guess what happened next.... “Sorry it hasn't been here since early July”. Staff there were very helpful and friendly thankfully because after 45 minutes following flags with no meaning and incorrect addresses we were not impressed with this complete disregard for tourists.
A traveller’s word and recommendations travel quickly and extensively these days, so get your act together and provide this service if you want people to stay and embrace what you have to offer.
Diane
Gearing change a danger
Tamper with negative gearing and risk another global financial crisis (GFC).
Owning a home is said to be the great Australian dream. Recent announcements by both sides of politics are targeting tax laws to try to make home owning more affordable. In the US, the Clinton Administration, in the mid 1990s, devised a strategy that allowed everyone the chance to own a home. They came up with a document called "The National Homeownership Strategy: Partners in the American Dream."
They also promoted the use of creative measures to help people achieve home ownership. These "creative measures" created loans called sub-prime; if prime loans are considered the Roger Federer (squeaky clean, solid) of loans sub-prime are more your Nick Kyrigious variety. No deposits were required and the lending criteria was very loose.
These sub-prime loans were on sold to investors, including many Australian local government organisations. When Ma and Pa Kettle somewhere in the States realised they could not afford the home they were in, they defaulted and moved out. The result was a decimated American housing market, lots of Australian councils left out of pocket, and the world being pretty much stuffed for a few years. What happens if our push towards housing affordability in Australia creates an unforeseen effect, similar to that which occurred with the GFC? We may be not deflating an overheated market, we may be bursting the bubble with some fairly dramatic consequences.
Rohan Christie
Melbourne
Something has to be done
When the horrific film of children being brutally mistreated by prison guards at the Don Dale juvenile detention centre NT, appeared on Four Corners, like many viewers, I felt as though there were two Australias. One civilised and progressive - the other, a brutal penal colony that existed to punish children for being born into disadvantage and societal neglect. What was most disturbing was the fact that the instruments of degradation and punishment: restraint chairs, spithoods and tear gas had actually been approved by officialdom for use on children.
Surely the very fact that these items were considered appropriate to facilitate the "rehabilitation" of youth in the NT, demands the immediate resignation of all who were involved in the decision-making, and mistreatment - including the NT government, and the immediate closure of the Don Dale Centre pending the conclusions of the Royal Commission of Inquiry.
