a597, you wouldn't be a school teacher would you.

You are the first person I know, who has suggested that Brisbane is in Victoria, but perhaps it floated down there, on the last flood, without me noticing. God knows you're welcome to it as far as I'm concerned.

Still, seeing as how Queensland, [or WA], supplied the foreign exchange used to pay for your white goods, cars & stuff, I don"t see why we shouldn't get a commission on your spending of it. We subsidised Victoria for long enough, when we had import duty protection of southern manufacturing industry. I wish we still did actually.

Ibbit, it is one thing to run a levy around a country town. Building one on $2000 an acre paddocks is not too expensive.

Building levies on waterfront mansion row, on land worth half a million a meter, even if it does flood, is a bit different. It is probably unaffordable.

Assistance in moving all the timber homes, that can be loaded on a truck, & moved to higher ground, would be better.

Nothing should be mandatory however. There have been many people interviewed on air, who just want to get "home" as quickly as possible. They are frightened their neighbourhood will die, if it takes too long.

Provided these people don't want tax payer subsidies, & are prepared to take their chances on the next flood, they should be allowed to do so.

There is a vast difference between the mining exports destroying our own manufacturing industries, and it supplying sufficient work and income to insure that all Australians are adequately employed, housed and enjoy fair treatment although this last part seems to have been off the catalogue of plans of the governments and their treasurers over the last forty years. The reciprocal imports seem to have managed to destroyed many or most of those industries we had even thirty years ago, let alone forty years ago and I am sure these politicians we have had and now have, don't have a clue and worse, don't care. No real attempt has been carried out to determine if our economy would exist successfully and economically with that mining exporting or would our industries cope more successfully and economically without the mining exports, no guesses, just proven facts please.

I know I got off the track a bit back there, but I honestly don't understand how the powers to be allowed developers and private builders to build homes in known flood plains, there seems to be adequate areas inreasonable places elsewhere. The authorities who did this, should be taken to the cleaners, I have seen new homes built which would have been flooded, whithin three months of the 1974 flood. By the way Hasbeen, remember that the mining reciprocal imports, have destroyed our own white goods factories and others. I wouldn't brag about it, do you know how many workers are now on only two or three days work a week just to give our parties the ability to say "we only have an unemployment of 5.4%", There are about four workers with families every week, getting evicted out of homes as they were not receiving enough to pay their mortgage. It's a great outlook for our children and grandchildren, isn't it.

Merv09, to go even more off the track, it's not the mining industry destroying our jobs, you have to go a bit further down stream to find the problem.

As a bloke who introduced many plastic materials, & production techniques to Oz in the 60s, I hate the loss of our manufacturing industries, & jobs as much as any one. I often rant that someone has to actually produce something to generate wealth.

I would much rather pay a little more for a local product. Perhaps tariff protection was not all as bad as the pollies reckoned.

In those 60s we supplied raw materials to 9 manufacturers of TV sets, & 7 of refrigerators, in Sydney alone. Where are they now.

Still you can't blame it on mining. Here's a case history.

In the 70s I was contracted by a company to set up local production of a range of high quality water & energy saving equipment, imported from the US & Europe, for the hospitality, & health care industries.

One was a chrome plated solid brass low flow shower, that did not feel like a low flow shower. Modified for Australia, they sold thousands.

In the 90s the company contacted me, & asked for help. They were being priced out of the market by Taiwan imports.

I was horrified to find I could get that same product, chrome plated with 3 rubber components, assembled, in a box, with the company's name on it, landed into store from Tiawan, for just under half the cost of the brass feedstock to make the thing here.

You'll have to ask some of our large companies why we can re-import our copper & zinc, converted to brass, & manufactured into finished products, cheaper than the raw brass here in Oz.