Suseonline>> just as my parents worried about me buying one years ago, when the interest rates were 17%.<<

Suse I remember that. I purchased my first home at just over 10% and six months later it zoomed to 18% and hung around for ten bloody years. We learned to love spag bol as a family staple around that time.

Ludwig>> Yes Labor’s direction has been shirthouse for years. And now they are set to be totally crunched at the next election. So they’ve got every motivation to embrace a shift towards a stable population and an economy that doesn’t have to be forever rapidly growing in order to deliver real improvements across the whole country instead of duplicating services and infrastructure for ever-more people, while the overall quality of these services and infrastructure declines.<<

God Luddy, Labor are failures, we are not talking ideologies, we are talking about competency. You have it about face regarding your comment “Yes Labor’s direction has been shirthouse for years,” their policy direction has not been shithouse….implementation has.

AI voted for Kev because of the promised raft of social reform policies that would see the corporations that monopolize our food and fuel play fair …Grocery Watch, Fuel Watch…..failures.

Housing for our first Aussies, super clinics, technical learning centers for our young….failures…..no housing, no clinics, and our kids are the least literate in the English speaking nations.

The Billion dollar bats….failure….4 kids dead, a billion paid for work not done, electrical fires and an inspection of every roof fitted.

The BER….failure…..Vergolas that cost $70k last year cost the BER $190k, demountable buildings without airconditioning cost half a million dollars, self managed Catholic and private schools get twice the infrastructure for the same money.

National Cable network….failure…. More than three years on it had passed just one third of 1 per cent of Australias homes and businesses.
The rollout has so far chewed up $2.832 billion, more than $900 million had vapourised in three years of accumulated losses. (In 2011-12 alone, NBN Co lost $520m.)

Nah Luddy, these clowns are incompetent, Swans a cretin, Gillard lies…..

Yes Paul, I spent some years up there myself. It looks good at a quick glance, but has some very big down sides.

A mate of mine died a few years back, from damage caused by a minor heart attack. A day to get to any type of medical treatment, & 3 to get to Cairns, for what he needed, was too much. Too late by then, the damage was done. He struggled on for some months but no more.

I've had 3 heart attacks, worse than his, & although damaged a little, it is not too bad. He & his wife wanted me to marry her sister, & stay. I'd be dead now.

With him gone Google earth shows me the atoll airstrip is back to bush as is most of the plantation. You can bet the power is gone, the 2 way radio, probably the school, & the law. Without much copra the small ships won't be coming, just a government ship once a year or so, No way to call for help, & no supplies coming in, not even batteries for your radio.

The life style would still have much to offer, but life would be shorter & painful for some.

Mr. O no one asks you to look good, street sweepers don't need suits. Those islanders are welcoming people, they'd let you in, provided you pulled your weight.

Hell I'll even pay your fare, it would be cheaper than feeding clothing & housing you, while you get another couple of useless letters after your name.

Paul an interesting sidelight on that housing we wouldn't live in. More fool us.

Many of the wealthy locals around Rabaul, where I new a few, had European style houses of fibro & tin out front, for prestige value, but they were too smart to live in the things.

They had another local style house of local materials out the back, where they lived. In that climate local material builds a much cooler, more comfortable home, & they know it.

I knew a few single blokes who lived in "bush" houses by intelligent choice. I never found a European lady living in one by choice. They were too worried by the thought of possible bugs in the thatch or woven fond matting. It was the thought, not the reality that got them.

Dear Hasbeen,

Thanks for the offer of a fare but I think your money would be better spent on improving your education.

& they weren't all that new when I knew them.

He's in denial Lexi, he's in denial.