Our prime minister in wanting, Bill Shorten was quoted as saying, "No matter where you live, you should have the same opportunities for a good job and a decent life as other Australians"

Well, of all the brain fart statements this fool has made, this one really takes the cake.

Does he expect the jobs to find the people?

Does he not realize that one reason people live in regional, out of mainstream towns is so that they have little chance of finding a job.

At least recent changes mean that one who is under 40 (from memory) and can not secure work, must move to where jobs are available, or be cut off.

This is one doozy that is sure to come back and bite this out of touch show pony, because that's all he is, out there prancing around, offering billion we don't have hoping there are enough gullible followers out there to be sucked in by his spin.

What an idiot.

Sorry flesher youre the idiot this time.

If you move to an area of lower unemployment your payment will definitely be cut off. So much for bludgers living in the sticks so they can avoid work.

What is it with you clowns that you ENVY and are JEALOUS of the pittance and misery that is the lot of the unemployed.

Fools like you are the first to whinge about country towns dying yet when someone says they support country people you call them idiots.

Why shouldnt ALL Australians benefit from the largesse and resources this country offers. No matter where they live.

Dear Mikk,

It is established that Rehctub doesn't want to pay for welfare.

Why should he have to?

If we could all ear-mark our tax payments, then Rehctub could direct his tax to fund defence and police for example, while we would direct our tax into welfare.

Suppose you don't want your tax to go into, say, stopping the boats, then here is a way to keep your conscience clear.

This way everyone will be happy and everyone will be happy to pay their taxes without avoidance.

Mikk, the answer to your question is very simple, values.

You see it's only when city folk move to the bush, (usually due to very low buy in costs), then sit there whinging about the lack of services, that the problems occur. They occur because they think it's their given right to have what city folk have, yet conveniently forget that they paid a fraction for their land. It's called, having your cake and eating it, it just can't happen.

BTW, you do share in our recourses, because we all receive subsidies whether it be into the roads we drive on, or the parks our kids play in. However, if you want a larger share, then take a risk and buy some of the companies in the form of shares.

As for people in regional areas who cant find work, I would offer some leniency if they were able to demonstrate that they moved to the town for work, then lost it due to the downturn, but certainly not indefinitely as many expect.

You see we had a very good welfare system nay years ago, then the bludgers realised they could scam the system and our leader have been too weak to do anything about it. The result being generational welfare dependency.

Step one to fixing that is to stop the cash, which is a shame for those who relied on it for its intended purpose, that being a 'hand up'. Somewhere the hand up because a 'hand out' to many which is why all are and will continue to suffer in years to come.

Y, I have no problem with welfare, as my problem clearly lies with welfare waste and dole bludging scum bags as you would clearly know by now.

It is indeed about values. Bill's not blind or stupid, but he is committed to regional development. He doesn't want people to be forced to move to Sydney just to find work. And though it would be hopelessly uneconomic to bring the standard of services in the bush up to that of the capital cities, that doesn't mean it should be kept so low that people can't even have a decent life.

Aiden, in many parts of the bush they get mobile coverage, which in turn allows for Wi-Fi, a perfect user pays alternative to the NBN.

My property in the bush may get the NBN, which is pointless because one, I don't live there, and tow, my nearest neighbours are i.5 km and 3 km away, meaning a lot of infrastructure to service three POTENTIAL customers.

The other point is people who buy in the bush to live, often do so to get away from city life, and above all else, to save money.

It is pointless spending billions on infrastructure to service the needs of just a few. You either have all the mod cons, or you live in the bush, it truly is that simple.

About 20 years ago I moved to a small country town (ca 1500 people), bought a house and started a business. People said you must be crazy, this town is dying. It's true that the big bank closed its branch two weeks after I arrived, but then we raised a couple of hundred thousand and enticed Bendigo Bank to come.
Since then the town has boomed - more people have come here and started businesses, and employed other people. NBN would help - my business and others are heavily dependent on the internet especially now that postal deliveries are down to 2/week, and mail goes interstate to a capital city to be sorted!
It helps that we're on a tourist route and closeish to a regional centre (but a long way from the next). Why should towns like ours have good services? Well, not just for ourselves. You have an accident 100k up the highway, then you will be very, very glad that we fought for years and raised a lot of money to get an ambulance base here.

It wouldn't want to be much of an accident Cossomby, if the ambulance was coming from 100K away. I live between 20 & 24K from 4 different towns, each with an ambulance base, & have yet to see an ambulance take less than an hour to get here, even for heart attacks.

Of course, those who want better service should stay in suburbia. You can't expect fresh air, good neighbours & good services, no matter what Bill says.

Still I agree good, well placed towns can still grow. We built a house on 20 acres of orchard on the outskirts of Young [NSW] in the mid 50s. I went to have a look at the old school & town a few years ago.

The high school that had 300 kids now has 780, & it took me ages to find the house. It & the other nearby orchards have been engulfed by the expanding town. Even the old fashioned main street shopping area has grown an extra block down the road.

Where I am now, is the almost exact middle of nowhere. As our areas first rural watch coordinator about 15 years ago, [like neighbourhood watch] I had 13 homes to coordinate. Now it has been spilt twice, & there are over 70 homes, & counting. People really do want acreage today.

I'm starting to feel crowded, & thinking Jandowae might be nice this time of year.

Yes hasbeen, Jandowae is a great little town, one I often pass through when I go to Miles.

Jandowae made the map quite a few years back when the local council offered land for $1 that's one dollar per lot to encourage newcomers.

Still not a real lot there and it is one town that has not been effected much by the gas industry, not sure why. Its also a great example of a town to perform a cost benefit analysis.

The town is about 100 to 150 km north west of Toowoomba, the nearest regional city for those who don't know. However, to take the likes of the NBN there, you would be lucky to pass by 300 potential customers, so its hardly what I would call, money well spent. Besides, i'm only guessing, but a house on an average block is in the range of $150 - $250K, a far stretch from the $600's you pay in say Brisbane. So of cause you don't get the bells and whistles, but then you don't pay for them either.

It's a case of one or the other, but you cant have both.

Is infrastructure a matter of cost, or the lives or potential businesses of small towns would be greatly enhanced with proper NBN.

Australia is currently the 30 th down the list of countries with fast broadband technology.

'You see it's only when city folk move to the bush, (usually due to very low buy in costs), then sit there whinging about the lack of services, that the problems occur. T

fair enough Rehctub but usually it is city people moaning about traffic, public transport and house prices that I hear. They expect to be able to buy a house close to town and jobs and have pristine bike paths to get to work. On the whinge factor and having lived in the city and bush I would think that the city folk are a mile ahead with their entitlement mentality.

If more city folk had a clue about the bush, many of these towns could become prosperous privately owned retirement paradises. For city home owners, moving to a country town would be better than winning the lottery, with the wealth it would free. Even many non home owners could afford to buy in these towns, & live much more cheaply than in the large cities.

When I first semi retired I bought a house in Burrum, near Howard. An ex railway house, it cost just $12000 when in a town like Maryborough it would have brought $50,000 or $120,000 in Brisbane. It allowed me to take a year to decide what next.

The town had died when the power house closed, the coal mining supplying it died, & the railways moved on. It is a great area, with good health care & recreational facilities nearby, & is now growing again as the smart tree change & retirees move in.

Probably not great places if you get past driving age, but then at that age, carrying a weeks shopping home to that expensive home in the city on a bus, would not be that easy either.

579, for small town businesses to thrive, they require customers. Just how will the NBN, remembering it is not cost effective in small towns, bring such customers, especially given its a voluntary service.

As for being 30th on the fast BB list, we also have a very large country, with a very small population. Its the same reason we don't have high speed rail, its all about the numbers and value for money.

Is this the worse ad of the whole election campaign?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fse0sm05V-8

No self respecting tradie would sound as phony as this pretender, sounds more like a reject for a 10 pound Pom!

Now for some fair dinkum workers with a real message for Australia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQOaNy-dk-Q

Good to see a a decent organisation like the CFMEU spending a quid to get the real message out there. Keep up the good work.

Hey everyone, come & look. Paul just cracked a funny. Yes that's right Paul.

He actually mentioned The CFMEU, & I quote, "fair dinkum workers" in the same post.

Now I've heard everything.

Hassy, unfortunately those of your persuasion are so easily duped, and we have a number of such persons on this very forum, they should wake up immediately because as an old Pope once said "You should stop it! otherwise you'll go blind!", you are being blinded by Liberal propaganda, We can even apply that old saying to the likes of you, "come in sucker!" as you fall for the conservatives despicable fraud feast that this whole election is. I would have thought a gentleman of your senior years would be able to spot a phony when he sees one, namely Mr M Turnbull, obviously not! It would seem Mr A Macrae (see ad credits authorised by A Nut, and spoken by A Phoney Liberal Party Canberra), Macrae is probably a used car salesman, sounds like one, who has another overpriced lemon waiting just for you.
On the other hand we have the decent working folk, members of that honest, honorable and respectable union the CFMEU trying their best (at their cost) to tell it, like it is. Just For YOU!

Did you watch the ads?

If you had read my other posts on matters politic Paul, you would have noticed me saying, nothing on earth could get me to vote for a party led by Turnbull.

Just as with his clone, Rudd I recognised him as a phoney the moment he appeared, pushing the case for a republic.

As a chardonnay socialist, without a practical bone in his body, he is actually exactly what you get, & expect to get leading the greens down the garden path, to play with the fairies.

One thought on 570s idea that the NBN will be good for small town business.

I reckon he's got that just about dead wrong. So many people are buying so much from dot com traders, both local & overseas that it is likely to be the end of small retail, both in the country, & the city.

Even old fogies like me are getting in on the act, since I discovered, & felt safe using PayPal for online purchases. I buy more than half the bits for my classic pommy sports car direct from the UK, rather than from Ozzie specialists, it's cheaper. I understand that to stock parts, local traders need some margin to cover the investment costs of holding slow moving stock, but then my budget is very finite.

At the same time local hobby shops are missing out on the $3 or $4000 my son & I, well mostly my son, spend on our remote control aircraft, & other toys. Things from saddles through white goods to chainsaws & camping equipment are arriving at the gate via courier or Aust. Post. Our mail contractor, [bush postie] had to buy a large van to do his rounds, as he is now delivering so many parcels. He even carries an electronic gadget so we can sign for our parcels at the gate.

Hell the stuff I buy from Hong Kong is even freight free

The net is taking an increasing amount of business from the retail trader, so much that many will disappear, as the current younger generation become the dominate consumer. For many the NBN is a disaster, well it will be if it ever gets finished.

The Death Of 'Medicare'! I see the Liberals have panicked and hit the streets at the 'Pre Polls' with a Turnball's placard , fresh from the printers, giving a guarantee to retain 'Medicare'. Is that a core or non-core promise, like Little Johnny Howard and his "never ever" promise on the GST!

How crazy are the Christian Demo's, aka God Squad, aka Fred Bile Group in NSW. I'm okay with Liberals, Labor people at the pre poll, we get on well, talk a bit of you know what s%$t, but the CDP crazies, they are off the planet. On Tuesday this CDP kid offers a woman voter one of their HTV, she politely refuses with a "no thanks" He givers her a mouth full "take it or I'll shove it up your ass" we could not believe it, shocked! He then goes on that the woman's a prostitute by the way she was dressed, she was an office chick. I said to my Liberal mate, "and you are giving them your preference" He said "I know! just crazy people", this kid tells me a little while later he hates going to church, but he has to, I didn't ask why. Judging by the CDP pair, the girl was no better, I can't wait to meet their candidate, judging by last time out he'll be as wacko as the rest of them including Fred.
In the Senate the CDP have done a preference swap with the Liberals, but in their 1 to 6 they have the Shooters and also the Hooters, obviously god likes to kill the little woodland creatures, as he hoon's around the bush in his four wheel drive.

The NBN will create more than it will wreak. Firstly it needs to be done properly and not a mishmash of technologies that will cause more disruption than ever.
To get people into small towns you need services, no one will go there otherwise. This is why everybody is congregating in corners.
Since when has holding back technology been a plus.
Turnbull was the greatest disappointment ever, his charisma outweighs his ability by miles.
Return Labor this time or next and get us back on the road. You can not keep taking away from established services.

Wonderful, wonderful women's rights to employment opportunities I could be accused of being politically incorrect. I pose that society needs a limited number of workers to service a population. Allowing women equal opportunities has allowed fewer employment opportunities for male workers. As women made their way into the work force, adding to families ability to service home variable home loans, pushing up the price of property auction bidding. At the same time illegal drugs, many more years spent in education institutions, technology mechanisation, allowed many people to be unemployable.

As mechanisation relieved people of low skilled employment, medical advancements and science engineering forces higher education excuses that bad education causes human intelligence to seek medicating entertainment in low intelligent skilled sports.

I estimate that what people will put up with is what people will get.

the by product of working women are fewer women having many children allowing immigration to replace population growth, new people that can borrow money and or rent housing creating demand fro new housing growth.

Jobs and growth means more immigrants to take up limited employment opportunities, replacing badly Australian educated Australian unemployable workers who failed to object to being badly educated.