Noticed the traffic getting worse lately? Struggling for a park at the beach? Now imagine twice as many people.
We had a 9.9 per cent rates increase last year and the administrator Gary Payne wants rate increases to be uncapped. Why, to pay for the extra infrastructure required to double our population. Electricity price rises, soaring rental costs, increased business costs like rent, energy and water, loss of lifestyle, upward pressure on inflation and interest rates; these are all consequences of population growth.
We are not asked if we want population growth by our politicians but they certainly ask us to pay for it. Neither the Nationals nor Independents have been able to say where the skills shortages exist in our region. Anybody who has tried to get a job here can tell you there are none.
Building our economy around property developments is a ponzi scheme that logic says must fail sooner or later. If you don’t want population growth and the many problems that come with it, then write to our politicians now. Don’t wait, because unless it is halted now, in five years or so, we will be down a path that can’t be reversed and paying for it very dearly indeed.
Luke Donald,
Port Macquarie
