theconversation.com
Ignorance/being uninformed is not the same as stupidity.
The Howard Government's changes to negative gearing in 1999 and the capital gains discount is widely credited as being a principal cause of the ever escalating housing affordability crisis we now face.
But there's an excellent piece written by Alan Kohler in the December 2023 Quarterly Essay which provides a compelling facts based analysis showing that the root cause of the current crisis goes back to the policies of the Menzies Government and has been compounded by the collective poor decision making of both Liberal and Labor Governments at both the state and federal level ever since.
It's an analysis that looks beyond the unhelpful boomer v non boomer simplistic binary debate that regularly substitutes for critical thinking and analysis in both commercial and social media platforms, including this one.
And Kohler's conclusion is this:
We are in a housing crisis – and it is a public policy failure of the biggest kind. This crisis is about more than housing: it is a social and economic crisis, creating a society defined by inherited wealth.
This article provides a good summary of his findings and recommendations for change:
Australia’s ‘deeply unfair’ housing system is in crisis – and our politicians are failing us
Alan Kohler’s Quarterly Essay lays out how the policies of successive governments have not only failed to address housing problems, but actively created them.
But looking back and finding out who should bear the most blame for the housing affordability crisis we are now in does nothing to provide a solution. And this is the Albanese thread and as the current government he and his government are the ones who must bear the responsibility of doing (close to) feck all to solve it.
And the frightening thing is that with an election looming in a few months, an integrated policy plan to solve the crisis is not in the focus of EITHER the ALP or the LNP Coalition.
Please point me to where I can buy shares in The Australian?
Where did anyone say it's not widely read? Readership and profitability are not necessarily correlated...
The Voice failure is on Australians.
Exactly. Libs are team fans, they don’t really care about Australia.
Australian referendums are brutal binary affairs. Though it was a clear win to No, helps to keep in mind that over six million Australians voted Yes. They are not going away.
thats extreme.
No one is disagreeing with you. But that was not the point/context of the posts you responded to.
That's not an accurate reflection of the either the Frontier Economics Report released today or the CSIRO Reports. The basis of BOTH reports is on an economic assessment as opposed to a scientific study.The lead author of the CSIRO Report is Paul Graham, Chief Economist for the CSIRO.
Sure.
www.frontier-economics.com.au
Liberal governments discovered that you can cut real spending on universities, and force them to make up the shortfall with full fee paying foreign students.
That's not an accurate reflection of the either the Frontier Economics Report released today or the CSIRO Reports. And the cost findings and assumptions of v1.0 and V 2.0 CSIRO report findings on costs are based on economic assumptions too. In fact the CSIRO Report has a big disclaimer in in about its failure to include full system costs.
A sensible approach is for both reports to be read alongside each other and look at the variations in costings and the assumptions behind them and then reach an informed assessment of which is more likely.
But don't look to politicians or politically aligned reporters to do that. And in the lead up to a Federal election I'm not sure sensible discussion on such a complex issue that is now so emotionally and politically charged will ever take place.
Sure.
But I'll be controversial here and say a facts based debate on future energy policy for Australia based around the lifetime full system costs evidence based assessment of comparative options is sorely needed. And its important to seperate the cynical politicking and uninformed opinion from that.
The economic assessment prepared by Frontier Economics and released today adds considerably to that discussion and its lead researcher, Danny Price, has no political ties to ANY political party and is not paid for or aligned to any Energy provider. In fact Price has worked with both Labor and Liberal Governments across Australia on energy policy and reform so his views are worth listening too and reflecting on. Especially as it does what both V1 and V2 of the CSIRO nuclear assessment costs didn't - and that's look at the full lifetime system costs and an open assessment of AEMO assumptions.
The Report is available here and I urge those who are interested in looking beyond the politics to take a read, at least of the Executive Summary, even if and I would say especially if you are opposed to the thinking and assumptions it contains (know thine enemy and all that).
Economic analysis of including nuclear power in the NEM
This is the second independent report in this series on modelling the economics of including nuclear in Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM).
Who was in power in 2020 when mass money printing and debt was created?
Of course. And let's include John Howard while laying blame
