They attended two auctions. Searching for a home in the Eastern Suburbs, they have a budget of up to $2.7 million. Take a deep breath and think about that figure for a moment! At auction they missed out on both places. An old narrow house which they described as almost a “terrace” brought over $3 million. The afternoon auction was cheaper - that house brought $2.9 million, just outside their budget.

Let’s ask why they would even consider paying that much money. Firstly, real estate in Sydney will continue to rise, so their $2.7 million house (when they find one) will soon be worth much more. Both are in good well-paying jobs, which are located in the centre of Sydney. But, would you like to be trying to find the repayments on a $2.7 million loan, even on two higher than average salaries?

Why has this been allowed to happen? Why can’t people find higher paying jobs in regional centres like Wagga?

Twenty or so years ago, Wagga had a fully staffed regional office of the Department of Education with about 125 staff. All  tasks relating to schools in the Riverina were handled right here in Wagga. Senior staff were located in Wagga. Bob Carr as Premier saw fit to move these administrative jobs to Sydney.

Soon Riverina TAFE will be no more. More jobs to head office. Wagga once hosted the regional office of the Health Department. Professional railway jobs that once were the backbone of Junee were firstly moved to Wagga, then whittled away here too. 

When CSU was created, Wagga had the biggest campus, but Bathurst was politically chosen as the head office, centring top administrative and professional jobs there. Before the amalgamation, administration for outlying study centres such as Albury, Griffith and Goulburn (now the Police Academy) were under the umbrella of Wagga academic and administrative staff. In fact, at the time a joke got around that if only Wagga could take over the university at Armidale (UNE), then the initials of Wagga, Albury, Griffith, Goulburn, Armidale would form the acronym WAGGA!

My point is that many highly paid Wagga jobs have been moved elsewhere. Government jobs, and jobs with big corporations could easily be moved to regional centres like Wagga if governments offered the right incentives. Such a policy would save money by relieving housing and infrastructure pressure in Sydney.

Wagga suffers a double disadvantage because we miss out on subsidised Opal Cards. A DA web reader pointed out that no metropolitan commuter can pay more than $15 per day, and he was right.

A weekly ticket costs no more than $60 a week, encouraging workers to live further out from the city centre. When I checked further, the subsidy includes Intercity trains. Travelling from Bathurst or Scone or Bomaderry can cost no more than $15 a day on the “Opal Enabled Network”!

Over 70 per cent of the state’s population lives within that “Opalised” arc from Scone (282km from Sydney), south to Bomaderry (157km), southwest to Goulburn (195km) and west to Bathurst (204km). They receive cheap, government-subsidised Opal Card travel, while we in Wagga pay full fare. 

Without meaning to finish on a pun, is this fair?