Letter to the Editor: Coalition breakdown a failure of leadership

DEAR News Of The Area,

THE breakdown in relations between the partners of the former COALition are indicative of a failure of leadership that has been a long time in the making.

The Nationals and the Liberals are more focused on internal power plays than the welfare of the citizens of this country.

As former COALition voters indicate support for the One Notion party it is clear that merely supporting a program of opposition to immigration is not going to solve the problems that affect most people, which includes the rising cost of living, particularly housing.

It is extremely ironic that the small anti-immigration marches were held on Australia Day.

There is nothing funny about the fact that many of them were organised, and addressed, by people who are Nazis.

I am confident that most of the people who attended would not identify as Nazis but one must be careful of the company one keeps.

It is also very concerning that a bomb was thrown into a crowd at a First Nations rally in Perth.

This took nine days to be declared a terrorist act.

We are just lucky that this white terrorist was also incompetent and the bomb did not explode.

The problem with housing costs is that we have developed a system that makes it difficult to buy one’s first house but easy for a person to buy their sixth or seventh.

Successive governments have gutted social housing with the message that the private market will do the job more efficiently.

The current crisis puts the lie to that line of thought.

The current rules, that include capital gains discounts and negative gearing, lead to ever growing house values to the detriment of younger people.

The Government spends more money on tax breaks for landlords than on social housing, homelessness, and rent assistance combined.

If we accept that this situation is not sustainable then what is to be done? Removing the discount on the capital gain tax, first introduced by John Howard, would be a good place to start and would save $20 billion per year that could be spent on affordable housing.

We need to change our mindset and realise that housing should be a human right, and not a speculative asset.

Regards,
Peter SOBEY,
Valla.