Honk if you love Labor

Newspoll results published in The Australian today appear to indicate that it is not just post-election euphoria which is giving such high approval numbers to the Rudd Government and such dismal numbers to the Coalition.

Left click lower right corner to enlarge.

Rudd Government moves on housing afforbability but will developers rort the proposed schemes?

The Rudd Government has moved to address growing mortgage and rental stress across Australia.

It has acted where the former Howard Government virtually sat on its hands for years.

 

Tim Colebatch in The Age today looks at some of the reasons for the housing crisis and Federal Labor's response.

 

What has gone wrong? There are many culprits, but the key ones are:

• Tax breaks for housing investors have lured more than a million Australians to invest in houses or flats, renting them at a loss, using the losses to reduce their tax (known as negative gearing), and then relying on capital gains, which are lightly taxed, to make the investment pay. Last year alone, housing investors borrowed $75 billion to buy existing houses, flats and units, up from $25 billion a decade ago and $2.5 billion 20 years ago. Investors' share of home lending, excluding refinancing, has doubled from 20% in the 1980s to 40% over recent years. That is a huge change in the market, and much of it has been at the cost of first home buyers. Their share of new lending has shrunk from 19% to 14% in that time. People without deep pockets now have to keep renting rather than buy.
• Local opposition to redevelopment of inner and middle suburban areas has led to serious shortages of supply, relative to the demand from people wanting to live close to the city. Land is finite, and when buildings can't go up, prices go up.
• On the outskirts, shortages of serviced land in some cities, coupled with heavy state government charges to supply infrastructure, have been blamed for driving prices up. They certainly help explain why an outersuburban block in Sydney costs much more than in Melbourne, but it is not clear that they explain why prices have soared in inner and middle-suburban areas.
• The Commonwealth and state governments have largely abandoned their former role as financiers and builders of new housing. In the booming 1950s, they built 20% of all new homes. Now they build 2%, and no one has picked their role as a supplier of affordable housing. No wonder Kevin Rudd says the issue of housing affordability is now "at a critical point". And it is likely to get worse.

Labor's central promises are:

• The national rental affordability scheme, aimed at reducing rents and increasing housing supply. This will offer $500 million over five years in tax breaks for investors who build rental housing, and then rent it out at 20% below market prices for the area. Yesterday Rudd reaffirmed this, and extended it to promise a second $500 million over the next five years (or from 2011-12, if the first tranche is used up by then).
• First home saver accounts, aimed at supporting aspiring buyers who have the discipline to save. Would-be buyers who save 10% of their earnings each year for five years will receive government contributions of up to $5000 towards their deposit.
• The housing affordability fund, aimed at reducing the cost of new blocks by investing $500 million to help states and councils fund the provision of infrastructure. Rudd announced yesterday that the first slice will provide $30 million to provide online services by which you can track the progress of your application for planning approval.
• Release surplus Commonwealth land for new housing.

From 2000 onwards under Howard and Costello the First Home Buyers scheme was shamelessly rorted by the wealthy, and on the NSW North Coast we have seen developers push inappropriate lot development on the spurious grounds that housing built would be exclusively for the aged or disabled. So what is to stop developers ripping-off both the Commonwealth and local communities under these new schemes? Not much I expect. 

It is rather disappointing that there is so little emphasis placed on public housing by this new government, without which there is no balance in social policy.

After all, public housing is a long-term solution for low-income families and the proposed tax breaks for investors will only guarantee rental housing for ten years before those houses, flats, units, built under the new scheme will be free to come onto the real estate market.

New Federal Housing Minister, Tanya Plibersek, needs to consider the possibility that jumping into bed with the private sector to ease housing affordability may be like swimming with a hungry crocodile - a rash decision quickly regretted.    

Where is your rural and regional tax dollar going to?

ABC News reported this yesterday.

 

"The NSW northern district president of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), Ian Murray, says official figures show the big mining companies received $1.3 billion in fuel rebate concessions last year, while coal prices were at record highs.

Mr Murray says it appears taxpayers, who are paying more than $1.40 at the bowser, are subsiding the coal companies.

"Why do companies that are reaping the highest prices - unprecedented profits that they have out of this industry - still receive taxpayer-funded fuel rebates?" he said.

"It is embarrassing to be part of an industry where this is taking place."

 

This is something many living in regional areas such as the NSW Northern Rivers, with poor or non-existent public transport, would like an answer to.

It's bad enough that within bowser prices it appears that a tax upon a tax exists, without finding that hard-pressed motorists and working families are subsidising some of Australia's richest and dirtiest polluters.

Which American bully will replace the incumbent bully in the US Oval Office?

It's hard not to be aware of the battle between nominees for the US presidential race, as Americans go through a drawn-out process to decide on their Republican and Democratic candidates.

However, I have to wonder why we all seem so interested out here in the real world.

When the reality is that, no matter who replaces George Dubbya in the White House, the world will still find itself facing a global bully with few redeeming features.

Perhaps that is what interests us all - exactly what face this bully will wear after the next presidential election. Obama, Clinton, McCain?

I've found a Reuters site which shows posts on the race from blogs outside the US:

Voices without Votes

On the North Coast we even have a song about US foreign policy (details in sidebar):

TexasFever.mp3

Eric Abetz spits back at Nazi 'slur'

Yesterday Liberal Senator Eric Abetz spat back at media reports of his family's Nazi past.

One can sympathise with the senator, but as he was a past master of the political slur while in government that sympathy doesn't extend too far.

I'm sure we are all wondering how the World Zionist Organisation now feels, as it hosted the senator on a tour of Israel in 1982.

 

Senator Conroy still following Howard Government's old ISP lead

With a much smaller than expected take-up of the former Howard Government's free home PC filter software (probably because it also randomly blocked legitimate sites and slowed download speed), Federal Labor Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, is now ploughing ahead with his plan to impose a national filter at ISP level.

 

He has been repeatedly told by industry experts that a filter of this type will not stop inappropriate material coming via social networking sites, chat rooms and instant messaging.

That the technology doesn't exist yet which could successfully filter these sites.

 

Even the former Liberal Communications and IT Minister was forced to admit to these difficuties.

"At its best, mandatory filtering by internet service providers was an expensive and ineffective way to limit children's access to online pornography, Senator Coonan told The Australian.

At its worst, mandatory ISP filtering was ineffective and seriously degraded the internet's performance, she said."

 

While one plaintive cry on the Web says it all about ISP filters:

"This host was good to me for the first half, but during the last few months, i've been experiencing numerous problems.
Support, although responsive, could not fix my problems. Website constantly give me errors, they said it was due to my ISP's filters, etc... "

 

But Senator Conroy, with one eye on his first kindergarten teacher, is intent on ignoring all the danger signs and has granted the tender for a trial which is expected to take place in Tasmania.

Poor Tassie. First in was the guinea pig in Hockey's smart card experiment - now it gets the chance to be annoyed by the Labor Right's absurd paternalism.

 

It will be interesting to see if Enex Test Lab lives up to its own hype about being a first rate testing facility when it undertakes the evaluations of available filter programs.

 

And what of the ISP filter programs which will be run by servers if Conroy's plan comes to fruition - will we find US filters such as this from the Christian right being commonly used?

Oh, how embarassing, Ms. Gillard!

Latest CrimTrack online job advertisement.

 

Attorney-General	Employment Opportunity N.N. 10384541
CrimTrac	Closing date: Friday, 29 February 2008

Job Title:	Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Support
Job Type:	Ongoing, Full-time
Location:	Canberra | ACT
Classification:	Senior Executive Band 1
Agency Website:	http://www.crimtrac.gov.au/

Job Description

Duties
The Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Support is a key member of the CrimTrac Executive and plays an integral part in shaping and implementing the strategic directions and focus for the Agency and in directing the achievement of its outcomes. The role provides advice and expertise with particular emphasis on corporate functions, finance, information technology and governance of the agency and its projects. The position also provides high quality strategic and operational advice to the CEO, the Minister and the CrimTrac Board of Management. 
Eligibility
The successful applicant will be required to undergo a Commonwealth Security Clearance. 
Notes
Total remuneration around $220,000 pa (to be negotiated through an AWA including salary, employer superannuation, executive vehicle, parking and performance pay) [my emphasis]

To Apply

Selection Documentation:	the CrimTrac website or phone, 02 6245 7755
Position Contact:	Peter Bickerton, 02 6245 7660
Apply:	SES Recruitment The CrimTrac Agency GPO Box 1573 CANBERRA ACT Australia 2601, SESRecruitment@crimtrac.gov.au
Agency Recruitment Site:	http://www.crimtrac.gov.au/recruitment.html

Applicants to employment opportunities notified in all formats of the electronic APS Employment Gazette should be aware that the names of successful applicants will also be notified in all formats of the electronic APS Employment Gazette. 

Now viewing Notice 1 of 1

This notice is part of the electronic APS employment Gazette PS05 - 07 Feb 2008 Published by Australian Public Service Commission.

In Rudd's Australia all human rights are equal, but some are more equal than others

Australia's Attorney General, Robert McClelland recently announced that the Federal Government will be signing the UN's Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

There is also a possibility that prohibitions against torture will be included in the Commonwealth Criminal Code.

 

I have to say I'm pleased with this announcement, but a little puzzled about why some human rights appear to be more important than others in the eyes of Rudders and Co.

 

Australia signed up to the UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination which has been in force since 1969.

Yet here we are breaking our commitment to this convention every day the Rudd Government allows Howard's NT Intervention legislation and regulations to stand.

Definitely an Animal Farm moment dragging uncomfortably on.