The towns where a pub steak costs you $45

    By Daniel Piotrowski
    news.com.au
    February 27, 2013

    $8.90 for a bottle of Coke
    $40 - $50 pub steaks
    'Astronomical' rises in cost of living


A BOTTLE of Coke can cost nearly $9, a pub steak more than $40, and rent for a three-bedroom house can suck more than $1500 a week out of your bank account.    

These are some of the "astronomical" prices people pay to live and work in outback mining towns.

A new parliamentary report finds the resources boom and a "fly-in, fly-out" culture is pushing the cost of living in regional areas well beyond city prices.    

Support services have warned the cost of living is placing a huge strain on local families - especially those who don't work in the mines.    

"We have observed astronomical rises in the cost of housing and in the cost of living in remote communities," said Rosemary Young, the national director of Frontier Services, a Uniting Church group who provide support to outback communities.

"This has resulted in a huge strain on local families," she said. "They are finding it harder and harder to meet these rising costs and sadly, in some cases, families can no longer afford to remain in the communities in which they belong."

The parliamentary report, Cancer in the bush or salvation for our cities, said the divide between the prices in the city and the bush was being fuelled to an "extreme level" by fly-in or drive-in workers.

The report said a three-bedroom house in resources hubs Moranbah (Queensland) and Port Hedland (Western Australia) can attract triple the rent of a Sydney property with Harbour views.

Even fly-in, fly-out mining workers, often cashed up with huge salaries, believe prices in mining centres can be obscene.
Port Hedland mine

FIFO culture at outback mines has fuelled a huge rise in the cost oif living for locals and workers.

"Costs in the Pilbara are ridiculous," said Melissa Petrie, who visits the Karratha region four or five times a year for work.

A restaurant meal or pub steak can cost between $40 and $50, and a three-bedroom house in the town of Onslow can cost up to $1500 a week, she said.    

That same rental price has also been seen on the other side of Australia in Queensland. Former resources worker Bianca Dodd, whose partner works in mining, said when she was in Moranbah in 2011, a three-bedroom house could snatch $1500 a week.

In Queensland's Bowen Basin mining hub, $4 Coke cans are the "norm", Ms Dodd said. A Sydney convenience store was selling a 375mL can for $2.40 today.

One worker who visited South Hedland, just south of Port Hedland, said she had purchased a 600mL Mount Franklin bottle and a 600mL Coke Zero for $8.90 each.    

Mick Connelly, a WA Transport Worker's Union representative in the Pilbara, said workers paid double they would in the city in many remote lunch bars.

"[It's] just unbelievable," he said. "For a box with a handful of chips, pieces of fish and prawns you're looking at $19, $20."

A Roxby Downs, SA, resident said she had seen a hot dog - just bread, sausage and sauce - sold for $8.

The prices are being driven up by the huge salaries of the fly-in/drive-in mining workers, a lack of local small business competition and distance from major cities.

On the other hand, the parliamentary report said fly-in/fly-out work had allowed many Australians to become wealthy without uprooting their families from the cities.

It can also allow partners to pursue fulfilling careers and spend large time away from work "to concentrate on full-time parenting", the report said.

Support groups have called on the government to act on the report's recommendations to supply more affordable housing and enhance small business in remote regions.

KPMG demographer Bernard Salt, who completed a study on mining towns for the Minerals Council, said mining towns had higher incomes and lower levels of unemployment than other parts of the country.

The study did not look at the cost of living.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/money/cost-of-living/the-towns-where-a-pub-steak-costs-you-50/story-fnagkbpv-1226586764308#ixzz2M8KrNSuJ

No.

What we need is set maximum retail prices that it is illegal to exceed.

Who never thought that price-gouging wouldn't occur, when mining employees are on such good money?

When in Perth on business last year I bought a $45 steak which was actually the CHEAPEST on the menu as some were $60+... and it was a lousy steak.

BigOl64 wrote on Feb 28^th, 2013 at 8:26am:


Greggory's suggestion would stop the extremes though.

Remember you said that next time lib supporters are saying we live in a communist country.

SOB

Sir Spot of Borg wrote on Feb 28^th, 2013 at 9:30am:



It was kat not greg


The reason we don't legislated the price of cooked food, other than being ridiculous and impossible to  enforce, it would put companies out of business as soon as their costs exceeded the allowable price,
they would have to stop selling and shut up shop.

It was a stupid suggestion and one with a little forethought would not have been made.


We have a very good system to regulate the cost of just about any item, it called the market; if no-one is willing to pay for it then they will not be able to sell it and then they will have to go out of business or price the item differently.

It is easier and vastly more efficient than having governments legislate every single permutation of a piece of friggen steak and its allowable maximum price. Surely you can see how ridiculous that would be?

KJT1981 wrote on Feb 28^th, 2013 at 10:35am:


Go away troll

SOB

Sir Spot of Borg wrote on Feb 28^th, 2013 at 11:32am:



So every three months or so the government would have to re-issue the new maximum prices for all variations of cooked meats to account for inflation.


BTW $45 is not  "completely ridiculous" price for a steak dinner in any decent pub or resturant, so I don't know what the bugger you are on about. Like I said the market will determine if the price is "completely ridiculous" not the government and especially not a government this incompetent.

I decide if I want to pay $45 or not, not some dimwit in canberra.


Stop demanding to be spoonfed and start making your own decisions like an adult.

BigOl64 wrote on Feb 28^th, 2013 at 11:47am:


No why would they have to do it every 3 months or so? They would be stopping ridiculous extremes not normal inflation.

Mining towns. Thats what the article was about. Its completely ridiculous to expect ppl that live in mining towns (especially the ones that were there before it became a mining town) to pay those exorbitant prices.

SOB