Every person who has paid rent on time for six months qualifies for a deposit-last loan.

It works like this: after six months of renting, a loan is given to buy a home – no deposit up front.

The renters continue to make payments rather than rent and after the first year, increase their payments to include their deposit debt over a 30-year loan.

More home owners, less renters, banks earn more on loans, investors get paid higher interest from banks in lieu of rental property investment.

It’s a win-win.

THANK you for giving me the opportunity to alert local residents that our daycare bus has been withdrawn from use and is to be sent to auction. 

This will be a serious "blow" to aged care health services in our town of Junee.

In discussions with the Murrumbidgee Local Health Services spokesperson, I was told that among other things the bus is too old and unreliable and will be too costly to keep going.

Also, I was informed the number of clients serviced by the bus does not justify the costs involved.

I believe the costs of running the vehicle and the unreliability surrounding its use have been grossly exaggerated!

The figures of bus usage on a daily basis vary greatly from time to time.

The use of the bus to convey elderly or disabled folk on short outings has been overlooked.

The bus has a low yearly number of kilometres travelled, but is used to provide great therapeutic value to those in our community, providing them with the opportunity to enjoy short picnic trips or visits to a concert, for example.

Hospital long stay patients also take the opportunity of joining in to use the bus.

This bus provides an important role in providing a better quality of life for those in our community who will make use of this bus now and in the future. 

To this end, I urge our own health services manager to join us in asking the Murrumbidgee Local Health Services to rethink the vehicle use at our local hospital.

I SEE that the Canberra-Tumut road through the Brindabellas is back in the regional press.

The link has a chequered history, with submissions now numbering in the teens since Canberra's establishment in 1913.

As a transport economist, I wrote one of the submissions for the Tumut Council in 1990.

The economic case is clear and strong and the build of a good standard, safe, single carriageway road with passing lanes, as advised at the time by council engineers, is not particularly difficult and the likely cost not prohibitive (unless a high speed divided road was envisaged).

However, the finances to build the road have been lacking - with neither the ACT Government nor Tumut Council having the wherewithal, and the Federal and NSW Governments deaf to appeals. Tumut councils have over the years run hot and cold, no doubt discouraged by the intransigence of the only sources of sufficient funds.

However, I would counsel not giving up on what would be a major asset for the entire region.