Archive, Industry News

EDITORIAL: Interest rate squeeze tightens household budgets

What a week, yes the interest rate has officially been lifted by the Reserve Bank to 7 percent. It is

What a week, yes the interest rate has officially been lifted by the Reserve Bank to 7 percent.

It is time for the government to stop whinging about the past regime leaving them in a pickle — the people have already spoken and ousted the Liberals.

It is a case of ‘be careful of what you wish for’ Mr Rudd, you wanted the top job, deal with it. Would you prefer to hand the reigns back over to the opposition for another three years and ask them to fix it up for you before you get into government?

It is the perfect time for the Public Transport lobby to seize the moment to push for more buses and greater availability of services to cope with the greater numbers of people ditching their cars for public transport because they now can’t afford to pay for their mortgage and fuel — especially living in suburbia.

On a 300k mortgage there will be approximately $50 more a family must find a month to survive.

Maybe it’s time for fare reductions or tax breaks for people using public transport — this could possibly offset the interest rate hike for the people really in need and encourage greater use of environmentally responsible public transport!

Our first poll received a few hits, the question: How do you rate current school bus contracts?

The results were 50 percent good, 38 percent bad and 13 percent not at all — obviously the number of respondents was a little short being the first poll, so don’t look at these results as the definitive statistical data on what operators and stakeholders think about school bus contracts.

The bugs have been ironed out for anyone that experienced issues with the poll last week.

We hope to get more of you involved in this week’s poll.

Question: Is the local body building industry in danger of extinction?

Be sure to log your response.

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