We're not being paid enough

The Advertiser: We're not being paid enough :

"They have risen only 57 per cent in Melbourne and just 25 per cent in Perth and Darwin. Business SA chief executive Peter Vaughan said the burden of soaring electricity prices had been carried almost exclusively by householders as power deregulation in 2002 had provided some savings for industry.

'But with householders paying the price of higher energy costs, that means they have less disposable income to spend,' he said."

They keep telling us we don't need to be paid as much because it is not as expensive to live here as in other states. So how come we earn less than the WHOLE of Australia? How come our electricity costs more and with the deregulation of various food industries we are paying more because of shipment costs and our own businesses are being put out to pasture so cannot supply us with cheaper, local produce? Free trade? Free enterprise? Well, maybe we shall need to adopt a more hard headed business approach which will then make us like the bigger states. SA has the advantage of still having the feel of a small town even though there are all the amenities and advantages of a city. If we go down the dog eat dog road, will we enjoy the changes? The biggest problem at the moment is we have no rental accommodation at a reasonable price. People with houses to rent are letting people bid for the price of the rent. Our state subidised housing has dwindled, our housing co operatives don't seem to work very well and the people who are on low incomes are sleeping in cars because we have shut down a number of caravan parks. On top of that, "crash pads" for homeless are frowned upon in the suburbs because we don't want those sorts of forms of accommodation in our street...and I'd say we need to have a blooming good look at the affordability of living in SA. Petrol prices have put the petrol up but also food. The cyclones has sky rocketed the price of bananas...we need a plan because we are about to get into the round of mortgagee sales which complete the property boom so the ones with the real money complete the circle. I know form travelling how much extra it costs me and how much more of an inconvenience it is trying to go anywhere from Adelaide and trying to organise things which the eastern states take for granted. Solid thinking and planning required because the cost of living here used to match the lifestyle. Now we get the cost of living interstate with none of the benefits.