Both parties’ plans do little to ease this crisis

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A PLACE TO CALL HOME

Both parties’ plans do little to ease this crisis
Labor’s “shared equity” and the Coalition’s “use your superannuation” schemes have several things in common. Both are minor programs likely to increase demand and thus prices rather than address the real problem, which is supply. Both have little cost to the government but have big implications for any individual or couple that participates. Both are not compulsory, people can choose whether or not they want to participate.

Whether either policy is good or bad is debatable, but both are peripheral and will do little to address the housing crisis. Scott Morrison is hoping that he has at last found a point of conflict to distract voters from the real issues surrounding this election; climate change, integrity, aged care, cost of living and, yes, housing. Like always with Morrison, it’s too little, too late.
Graeme Henchel, Yarra Glen

A political offer with very little bite to it
In Australia the average salary is $90,000 a year and the super guarantee rate is 10 per cent, so super goes up by $9000 a year.

To take out $50,000 from your super to buy a house, under Scott Morrison’s current proposal, you need to have $125,000 in your account. That translates to roughly 10 years of work if you add in interest. So, the average person in their 20s couldn’t possibly access the full amount. And $50,000 in a super account at age 30 translates to potentially $200,000-plus at retirement.

Then, when you sell, you have to put the $50,000 plus pro rata capital gains back into super. Try and keep track of that one. And, how happy will you be to have $50,000 less to put into your next house? Also, you can’t sell within 12 months. Ever harder to keep track of.

The reality is that a few people might withdraw small amounts, so it’s a political offer with very little bite to it.
John Pinniger, Fairfield

This will inevitably increase prices
The Coalition’s plan to allow first home buyers to tap their super so there will be an extra $50,000 or $100,000 to kick into the deposit bucket is a nice sentiment but fails Economics 101.

“Affordable” housing is already a diminishing commodity. Enabling thousands more buyers to compete in a particular market will inevitably increase the cost of that commodity. Buyers are desperate, sellers are there to maximise profit.

Better to increase supply so there is a match between supply and demand. Build more affordable low and medium-density housing, service new housing developments with adequate infrastructure and provide rapid, affordable public transport. This will do more for first home buyers than a scheme that will ultimately increase prices and enrich sellers and the developers.
Owen Wells, Mont Albert North

THE FORUM

An alarming shift
While tribunals like the Administrative Appeals Tribunal are not courts, it is important that they are impartial, and that appointees have appropriate qualifications and experience – not just the right connections.

The shift away from this convention is alarming: 5 to 6 per cent of appointees had political backgrounds under the Howard and Rudd/Gillard administrations compared to 40 per cent under Scott Morrison (“Fears over politicisation of tribunal”, The Age, 16/5).

This government’s approach to AAT appointments shows a complete disdain for proper process and an abdication of traditional Liberal values.

Given Scott Morrison’s extraordinary attacks on the NSW ICAC, his government’s sham of a bill to establish an integrity commission and the Coalition’s “nothing to see here” approach when questioned on issues of probity and transparency, no wonder the “teal” independents are gaining traction in traditional safe Liberal seats with their calls for action on integrity.
Jennie Irving, Camberwell

At odds with his electorate
If Josh Frydenberg is not returned to parliament he may be tempted to find excuses but he will need to accept that he has no one to blame but himself.

The views of most of his constituents on a range of important issues such as climate, energy, integrity and refugees have been made clear repeatedly, but he has not presented or prioritised them in parliament.
He may need to reconsider the core idea of what it means to be a representative in a representative democracy.
Lawrence Ingvarson, Canterbury

It’s not all bad news
We’ve heard a lot about getting workers back into the CBD to save businesses reliant on workers’ trade, but there is another side to that story.

If workers continue to spend a significant number of their working days working from home, there are advantages for the state and workers. Public transport will be less crowded and require less growth with population growth.

Fewer freeways and road works will be required in the future. A reduction in office accommodation requirements will leave buildings free for conversion into living space.

We should not insist on the CBD remaining unchanged, because decentralisation within the greater metropolitan area presents advantages including creation of new business opportunities.
John Groom, Bentleigh

My hope for those in limbo
On Sunday morning, I read with a mixture of sadness and anger of the treatment by Australia of so many refugees (“Faint hope for 32,000 in limbo”, Extra, 15/4). That afternoon I went to a family reunion, celebrating 100 years since my husband’s grandparents arrived in Australia as part of a large family group.

They were refugees from Ukraine, then part of Communist Russia. What a difference in their treatment: 100 years ago, the family group was welcomed. They built businesses to provide employment for family and non-family. They educated their children.

The extended family – children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren – has contributed enormously to Australia: doctors, lawyers, public servants, business people, not-for-profit managers, paramedics, physiotherapists, dentists, film-makers, broadcasters, academics, engineers and so much more.

Imagine what could be achieved if Australia were to allow those poor souls described in your story, trapped in limbo for years, to be free and participate in our society. It may be too late to repair the damage we have inflicted on these refugees, but they and their children can achieve much if only we allow them to.

We would be so much better off by freeing these refugees and encouraging their aspirations for a better life.
Louise Kloot, Doncaster

As Malcolm Fraser said …
I am curious about the political philosophy behind the Liberal advertising attack on Labor – “it won’t be easy under Albanese”. Is it a case of historical ignorance or the repudiation of a past Liberal leader?

It was Malcolm Fraser, a Liberal prime minister, who famously said “Life was not meant to be easy”.
Elvire Gemmel-Broadhurst, Ivanhoe

Lost in the frenzy
It would be good to see more commuters wearing masks on public transport. The message that there are about 50,000 new COVID infections nationally every day seems lost in all the election frenzy.
Meg McPherson, Brighton

Setting a bad example
Like every other one, this election is undoing all the hard work educators do to teach their students to be informed, civil and collaborative.

Misinformation, bullying and bad manners abound as our “leaders” vie for our vote. Each ballot is a reminder that power writes its own playbook, and students learn that in real life anything goes to get to the top.

Given this, surely it’s time to acknowledge the unrealistic burden placed on education to reform society. Curriculum alone is not the answer to political disengagement among young people today. Students know bravery, vision and integrity when they see it. If a democratic education is to mean anything, its principles and values have to be practised, modelled and seen outside the walls of the classroom.
Kirk Weeden, Frankston

Three years to ‘warm up’?
During his campaign launch in Brisbane on Sunday, Scott Morrison stated that he should be given a second term, because he was “just warming up”.

If it has taken a three-year term as prime minister to just warm up, how long will it take for this man to actually take on the responsibilities of prime ministership?
Faye Spinelli, Edithvale

Bring them back
When I reflect on the last half-dozen or so Australian prime ministers, none has gone quietly after losing their job with the singular exception of Julia Gillard, our first and only female prime minister. Interesting also to note that she was sworn in as PM by our first ever female governor-general, Dame Quentin Bryce, who history must surely declare as one of our best ever governors-general.

Gillard presided over a hung parliament yet managed to pass 561 pieces of legislation in her three-year term with the support of a Green MP and three independents, before she was ruthlessly deposed, and it was achieved despite the disgusting treatment she received from her opposition and many right wing shock-jocks. Her major achievement was the NDIS, which is today struggling because of inept management and a lack of funding.

But unlike her fellow ex-prime ministers, she went quietly and has held many prestigious positions worldwide, including the chair of the Global Partnership for Education, chair of Beyond Blue, inaugural chair of The Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at Kings College, London. There are others.

Bring them both back.
John Cummings, Anglesea

Unrealistic pricing
Global warming is rated as a major concern, but if society is going to limit it to 1.5 degrees we can’t just rely on renewable energy, recycling and new technology not as yet invented. Lifestyles need to change as a matter of urgency.

“An airfare to remember” (The Sunday Age, 15/5) shows how little we realise the seriousness and what is required of us. The couple in the story are not to blame. Like everyone, they make decisions based on frameworks and pricing that maintain our reliance on carbon.

The aviation industry is responsible for 12 per cent of global transport CO2 emissions and there is nothing on the horizon for them to become net zero by 2050.

How many one-day flights will be added for interstate corporates invited to the AFL grand final and Melbourne Cup Day?

A bit excessive? At some stage very soon we need to implement a carbon pricing system that will send clear signals that our lifestyle has to change.
Michael D’Aloia, Coburg

It is not good policy
Economists are scathing of the Coalition’s uncapped proposal to allow home buyers to access up to 40per cent of their superannuation to a maximum $50,000 to help them buy their first home.

Independent economist Saul Eslake says if the maximum amount is withdrawn, the policy would allow single households to pay $250,000 and couples $600,000 more than they might otherwise do, adding that the overwhelming evidence back to the time of the Menzies government was that these schemes result in “more expensive housing, not in higher home ownership rates”.

Clearly it is not good policy, so why is the prime minister promoting it one week out from the election? Labor’s Jason Clare might be on the money, describing it as “the last desperate act of a dying government”. I guess time will tell.
Neil Hudson, East Melbourne

It’s about more than money
Over recent years housing prices have increased to the point that in many cases sale of a home will generate significant proceeds, however the cost of a new home of like quality and location, even if it is smaller, might not provide enough surplus to justify the transactions.

And yes, it would be open to metro area dwellers to relocate to regional areas, however there would be other considerations, including moving away from family and friends, current medical facilities and city attractions. The proposed downsizing policy to allow selling homes and contributing proceeds to super ignores these aspects.
David Moore, Hurstbridge

It’s not that difficult
Regarding the challenge presented by your correspondent (“More to reading”, Letters, 14/5) about phonics, students (and teachers) need to know a phonogram is a single letter, or a fixed combination of two, three or four letters that is a symbol for one sound in a given word.

Students can learn these symbols for sounds by looking at them and sounding them out, by hearing them and writing them down and by blending them together to make words. Five of the six words your correspondent listed can be taught in this way, while “was” can be taught as an interesting exception.

There is more consistency and there are fewer anomalies in the English language than many people realise.
Jim Henderson, Croydon

AND ANOTHER THING

The campaign trail
Scott Morrison’s plea that he is seeking a second term “because I’m just warming up” may be an acknowledgment that he is finally feeling the effects of climate change.
Harry Zable, Campbells Creek

We are in debt to the tune of $1 trillion and Scott Morrison tells us he’s just warming up?
Louise Johnson, South Yarra

Can we please be spared from hearing again about Anthony Albanese’s early life?
Joan Mok, Kew

Would anyone but a “loose unit”, a week before an election, offer to inject more money into an overheated housing market in an attempt to cool things down?
Ron Slamowicz, Caulfield North

Politics
The best predictor of future behaviour is relevant past behaviour, so the most we can hope for is a switch to a different bulldozer.
Erica Grebler, Caulfield North

The cost of living
Can we dip into super to pay for groceries and petrol?
Brian Morley, Donvale

Ross Gittins (“Corporate chiefs should back wage hikes for workers”, Business, 16/5) is an absolutely brilliant read to avoid being bulldozed into panic and false conclusions if the lowest-paid workers get a 5.1 per cent wage rise.
Kishor Dabke, Mount Waverley

Furthermore
I completely agree with Roshena Campbell (“Why women should vote for Coalition”, Comment, 16/5). Women should look at the track record of both parties. I fail tosee how she has reached her conclusion though.
Rosslyn Jennings, North Melbourne

Roshena Campbell argues women should vote for the Coalition. They should only do this if they want to be governed predominantly by men.
Ian Robinson, Cowes

Finally
An extra bulldozer would have been appreciated at the bushfires.
Barry Davidson, South Melbourne.

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