A great Potato Festival well done - We all await the date for the 2nd Potato Festival in 2023 thank you.

Congratulations to Philip Morton, who has once again contributed a fascinating article on Southern Highlands history in the Southern Highlands News last week. I was particularly interested in his article on Oldbury. I was lucky enough to visit there on an open day several years ago, but hadn't realised all the details of its background. I am impressed with James Atkinson's visionary promotion of boutique distilleries here!

We are indeed fortunate to have such a competent historian is Philip exploring our local past.

Time ran out at the meet the candidate forum (May 4) before I was able to ask my question about housing.

Current policy settings treat housing was a wealth creation mechanism rather than as a human right. This approach is making access to housing, whether through ownership or rental properties, more and more restricted. This in turn has led to real social pressures including increasing homelessness - especially for a growing cohort of women aged 50 and up, as well as intergenerational inequity, as younger people are priced out of the market.

At the same time there has been a massive lack of investment in social and affordable housing, so that waiting lists for social housing are years long and essential workers are unable to afford to live where they work.

I'd like to know what each candidate would do, if elected, to ensure that a multi-pronged approach is brought to this complex issue?

I do not understand how our economy is regarded as "strong" when nowadays, it is driven by debt. Many of our young people are in debt before they get a job due to HECs fees.

As of February 2022, there were 13,157,721 credit cards in Australia netting a national debt accruing interest of $18.5 billion.

In the latest reports, Australian Household Debt reached $2676.98 billion in September 2021 and in June 2021, total debt held by Australian governments were expected to more than double from pre-pandemic levels to a record $2 trillion.

If our economy is so strong, why is homelessness increasing and charities are being stretched beyond their limits?

How are young couples supposed to budget for their household when there is no job security. Casualisation of the workforce and removal of penalty rates have reduced incomes. In most cases, both parents have to work to make ends meet.

During the pandemic, people were allowed to draw off their superannuation which reduces their capacity to payout long time debts in the future. Just last week (May 6) it was announced that there is 38,000 people including 9,000 children living below the poverty-line in the ACT.

It seems strange that someone working one hour per week is regarded as employed.

When I consider how it was when we were starting out, a relatively low income plus a bit of overtime, one party could stay home to look after the kids. It is my strong belief that in this modern high powered world of globalisation, casualisation and privatisation, we have gone way off the rails.