DEADLY DELAYS IN CROC ACTION
HUNDREDS of thousands of home loan customers will be pushed to the brink if interest rates rise and won’t cope with larger repayments, alarming research has revealed.
Financial services firm Canstar quizzed more than 700 Australian borrowers and found about one in five existing mortgage customers ( 17 per cent) would not be able to afford one rate rise of 25 basis points when it happens.
This would add about $ 45 a month to repayments on a standard $ 300,000 30- year home loan. Based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data, this means about 485,000 households would be struggling to make ends meet if they were hit by an interest rate hike.
The research found of those who say they will be able to cope, 51 per cent say they can only afford an increase of between 25 basis points and one percentage point. A WOMAN used bolt cutters to break into an animal pound and bust out a billy goat.
Cecelia May Lidden, 53, wanted to return the missing pet to her menagerie. She pleaded guilty in Rockhampton Magistrates Court yesterday to enter premises and steal a goat.
Police prosecutor Julie Marsden said Lidden entered the Rockhampton Regional Council’s facility early on September 5 using bolt cutters.
“The goat had been missing for a couple of days,” she said.
Defence lawyer Pierre Lammersdorf said Lidden had looked for the billy goat at the pound but could not locate it.
He said the animal lover, who owns three pigs, two horses, a pony, the billy goat, a female goat and two baby goats, had returned to the pound later and found the goat.
Magistrate Jeff Clark ordered Lidden to pay a $ 350 fine and no conviction be recorded. KATTER’S Australian Party says the case of a woman feared taken by a crocodile near Port Douglas adds weight to their push for croc culling.
The party’s Safer Water- ways Bill is under consideration by Queensland Parliament’s Agriculture and Environment Committee.
The Bill deals with issues relating to crocodile culling and egg harvesting.
It comes as police fear, after a two- day search, that a crocodile is responsible for taking missing 79- year- old Anne Cameron. Remains and personal items were found yesterday at a Craiglie creek, near Port Douglas, with forensic testing to be carried out on the “biological matter”.
KAP Mount Isa MP Robbie Katter said the incident renewed the party’s vigour to try to prevent similar incidents occurring again.
“It behoves the Government now to recognise that these are real threats faced up there, real things that happen to people because of lack of action here and through these most tragic circumstances we need to recognise our responsibility here in government to respond,” Mr Katter said yesterday.
“We can shoot kangaroos, we can shoot pigs, we can shoot wild dogs, we can shoot koalas in this country but we can’t shoot crocodiles.
“That seems to be unpalatable to politicians and unfortunately up in North Queensland we face the risks and sometimes the ultimate price because our governments are weak on this issue.”
Mr Katter said North Queenslanders were not willing to wait three years for the