When Gough Whitlam in the 1970s put up wages alarmingly, not only did it cause inflation but also unemployment to rise.

I know in our case, we had to ask the staff to take less hours or for some to resign. They chose to take less hours and guess who had to pick up the extra hours - the boss, me!

Also, being in business in a small town with a fixed population, you don't get any extra customers to make up for the extra costs, and everything goes up, from rates, insurances, workers compensation, superannuation etc, etc, and of course the cost of buying in goods to sell.

So tell me why would small business owners look forward to any wage rises? It certainly explains why in small towns and no doubt in some suburbs why many businesses are run mainly by family members.

Small business people have to be stoic in the face of difficulties. Perhaps the general public may have to learn that having a job is better than being unemployed.

Everything that Steven McCarthy says sounds good, but sadly only in theory does it work.

I am involved in research that involves Albury and Southern NSW during the last 150 years.

RELATED CONTENT

Wannabe pollies and photo ops? Must be an election looming

Let's take the abuser out of the equation

Albury needs a police force that is properly resourced

SEND US A LETTER

My reading has discovered the reporting of a calamitous drought in the 1850s and 1860s involving southern New South Wales where there was very little population at that time, and the reporting of temperatures of 105 degrees in Albury in the early 1880s.

I'm finding it very difficult to accept the argument that the current weather conditions we are experiencing have been caused by man, when similar weather conditions were being reported long before Australia experienced any significant industrialisation. Am I missing something here?

The waiting time for public dental health at Wangaratta is over two years. The dental health service, attached to Wangaratta hospital, provides services for the poorest in our community, those on health cards and pensions. For many of these people, private dental health care is simply unaffordable.

Dental health experts recommend that everyone has a dental check up every six months. This allows problems to be identified and treated in the early stages.

The long waiting times for dental health in the public system leaves health card holders with difficult choices. They either have to pay for private dental treatment , which they can't afford (a filling can cost as much as their weekly welfare payment), or let their teeth deteriorate.

Many don't put their names down to start with, due to the long wait.

Public dentists used to be free. There is now a nominal charge for treatment. This was, however, introduced with the aim of reducing waiting lists. It clearly isn't doing this. Public dentistry is a state issue. Clearly it isn't very important to our state MPs.

Ideally, however, it should be made part of Medicare, and I encourage all of our MPs, both state and federal, to lobby for this to happen.