I cannot feel sorry for Chirayu Shah and his poor, hard-done-by sons (“Property investors fear forced sales under negative gearing changes”, September 26). He and others like him who are rich enough to put their spare cash into investment properties have been enjoying massive tax concessions for years. Other taxpayers have to pay higher taxes or public services have to be cut to help out. Perhaps the Herald could interview those young home buyers who are excited about the price falls from the resulting sales or the patients at public hospitals who will see better public services as a result of a fairer tax system. Peter Hull, Katoomba
Chirayu Shah and his two boys, Vivaan, 13, and Aarin, 9 at their Baulkham Hills home.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Whilst increasing numbers of children live in families experiencing homelessness, Chirayu Shah worries that his sons won’t be able to experience the benefits of the family’s second property. It is precisely this sort of intergenerational inequity that the Albanese government needs to tackle by ending negative gearing. Louise Sorbello, West Ryde
I have no argument with people who want to help their children get a leg-up in life. But I don’t believe for a moment that a professional person with children a couple of decades away from needing independent housing is unable to imagine ways it might be achieved other than by owning a negatively geared investment property. Being in a position to help one’s children into the housing market is a privilege. It’s not the place of government policy to provide ways it can be done. Prue Nelson, Cremorne Point
My understanding was that negative gearing meant lower rents as landlords were not expecting to recoup all their costs from the rental income. If this tax break is lost, what will that mean for renters already struggling with high prices? Philip Cooney, Wentworth Falls
While I welcome the intensifying discourse about Australia’s housing policy settings, I am frustrated by political, journalistic and commentator assessments of whether individual reform proposals will fix the problem. One or two reforms alone – whether it’s reducing housing-related tax privileges, build-to-rent, planning reform, residential tenancy reform, managing immigration volatility or helping first home buyers – will not be a magic bullet. We need a nationally co-ordinated package of housing policy initiatives designed to improve the fundamentals of our housing system. What is our nation’s comprehensive and integrated housing plan? Vivienne Milligan, Glebe
Steven Hamilton’s support for negatively geared properties just explains the law and not the social impact of the unfair tax advantage enjoyed by investors (“Misunderstood tax rule is no rort”, September 26). The difference that abolishing negative gearing will make is this: it gets investors and the banks, the main beneficiaries, out of the market, and instead of a sellers market, we may get a buyers market. John Macintosh, Merewether
I think Stephen Hamilton is wrong. All investments shouldn’t be treated equally because we live in a society. It is right to encourage investments that help society as a whole and discourage those that don’t. Policies that encourage people to accumulate property help them and their families – that’s it. This is distinct from, say, investments in new technology that reduce climate change, or countless other examples of prosocial investing. Jim Filshie, Kingsgrove
For each residential property investor who exits the market, space is made for an owner-occupier. This has to be a good outcome for our young people desperate to own their own home. Property prices won’t crash, despite the cries of “the sky is falling” – potential owner-occupiers are there but have been consistently outbid by investors many times in recent years. Penny Ransby Smith, Lane Cove
There are frequent reports about the high cost of rent, particularly in Sydney, but so many landlords are managing to lose money on their investment properties. This seems to be either incompetent financial management or deliberate manipulation at the expense of the ATO. I cannot believe that people buy houses to rent out as some kind of altruistic contribution to the housing shortage. The responsibility to generate housing supply rests with government, not with the market. Eric Scott, Bondi Junction
The main problem with housing supply is economic interest. A builder can make significantly more profit from a high-specification house than from an ordinary house. Instead of subsidising first home buyers or allowing people to raid their super, the government would do better to subsidise builders to build low-specification houses as the housing commission used to do. Such houses could be sold at lower prices, increasing the stock available to lower income buyers. Alan Stanley, Upper Corindi
Your correspondent suggests the government is finally growing a backbone in relation to negative gearing. Not really – this is a classic “fly it up the flagpole” distraction with no real intent on taking it to the election. The scars from the 2019 defeat are still raw and as the government’s inept campaign for the Yes vote on the Voice referendum demonstrated, it lacks the ability, especially with Albanese as chief advocate, to counter what will most certainly be a concerted scare campaign from the opposition. It will be consigned to the dust bin before Cup day, unfortunately.
Mike Kenneally, Manly
Labor loves coal
Every Labor voter I know has installed solar panels, is purchasing green energy and changing over to electric vehicles. So what does Labor do as a reward? It gives a dirty green light to coal miners to produce possibly 1.3 billion tonnes of destructive greenhouse gases (“Plibersek approves ‘1.3b tonnes’ of coal mine emissions”, September 26). The otherwise gutless Labor party is not timid when it comes to protecting a few votes in mining electorates. But the opposition is also to blame. Only because Dutton is in cloudcuckooland fantasising about nuclear can Labor create the illusion of being a responsible government. Philip Bell, Bronte
The Mt Pleasant mine, far left, and New Hope’s Bengalla mine, right, in the NSW Hunter region.Credit: Janie Barrett
In August 2022, barely three months after the last federal election, the Albanese government approved hugely expanded offshore areas for oil and gas exploration, angering the teals and many in the electorate who had believed Labor’s claims to bring an end to the climate wars. Since then, Australia-wide subsidies given to the fossil fuel industries have increased ($14.5 billion in 2023- 2024). This week’s three massive approvals of expanded coal mining constitute a further betrayal of intentions to behave responsibly, keep our global commitments, respect our Pacific neighbours and work towards re-establishing a potentially benign climate.
The government may have forgotten that the seats lost by the Coalition in the 2022 election were mostly won by the teals and the Greens, who had a clearer commitment to honouring our international obligations regarding global warming. They may also have forgotten the importance of trust in politics.
Penny Rosier, North Epping
School history link
Two letters in defence of public education printed in succession in today’s Herald share an interesting link (Letters, September 26). The first was by a former Randwick Boys High School history teacher, and the second by the father of an old boy and former Olympian, from the same school. This says much about values and public schooling. Nick Benson, Newtown
Dollars and disrespect
According to Peter V’landys, “the Australian jumper is sacrosanct, you can’t disrespect it” (“Roo Blue: V’landys won’t let players disrespect jersey”, September 26). Unless, of course, you want to plaster a sponsor’s name and logo, in this case Gallagher (whoever Gallagher is), over the front of it. What is now sacrosanct in professional sport is making a buck. John Campbell, South Golden Beach
Hold bullies, parents to account
Congratulations Jenna Price for your excellent opinion piece (“Bullying must be called out for what it is - violence”, September 26). Having spent almost 60 years in the school education system, I wholeheartedly agree that it’s time to call out bullying as violent behaviour perpetrated by an aggressor. Only then might we move past yesterday’s excuse-ridden cliches that “it’s just kids being kids” or “you need to toughen up”. The incidence and sophistication of bullying have obviously expanded exponentially with the normalisation of social media. Those previous lame excuses for bullying are no longer relevant or acceptable. The perpetrators of bullying and their families need to be held accountable for violent and aggressive behaviour. Society has to stop minimising this issue by using outmoded and outdated excuses. This applies to adult as well as child interactions. Warren Marks, Hill Top
After 25 years of teaching in public schools, I can assert that bullying is alive and well in the right conditions and that children can be isolated socially if nothing is done about it. As for the values of inclusion, most schools try hard to meet the needs of students, but it takes years of strong leadership and parental support for these problems to be sorted. I have taught in underprivileged and middle-class schools and haven’t found any noticeable difference between them regarding the values of respect and cooperation, which are often put on classroom walls but don’t always translate to behaviour and attitudes in the playground. These values must be taught at home. Vivienne Parsons, Thornleigh
Endearing diplomat
I loved having Caroline Kennedy as US ambassador to Australia, what a lovely warm and endearing diplomat (“Kennedy to leave US ambassador’s post”, September 26). We watched her grow through the media linked to JFK, her father, and we also shared her tragedies. I will miss her warm and endearing smiles. Susan Chan, St Ives
US Ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, addresses the media at a doorstop interview after attending a sausage sizzle to raise funds for the Cancer Council, ahead of her participation in the Shitbox Rally. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Naked ambition
Clearly this theatre company is portraying raw emotion and perhaps it should relocate its whole kit and caboodle and flesh out the audience in a new locality, maybe Buff Point (“Griffin seeks naked truth in teasing new season”, September 26)? Allan Gibson, Cherrybrook
Respect real Kokoda
I respect, feel for and sincerely commemorate the largely untrained and badly equipped militia troops that an unprepared Australia sent to oppose the Japanese on the Kokoda Track (“‘We’ve stuffed it’: Kokoda Track shut indefinitely, leaving tourists high and dry”, smh.com.au, September 26). They certainly fought with the determination that came from their belief that they were fighting to keep Australia from being invaded. However, this is 2024 and we have long since known better. Can we please stop with statements like “played a crucial role”? The Kokoda operation was strategically irrelevant, confirmed when Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo ordered their forces to retreat from the heights overlooking Port Moresby because of the situation at Guadalcanal. The Pacific War was decided not by small groups of foot soldiers but by enormous aircraft carrier forces.
Please, let us respect and commemorate our troops without continuously imposing some present-day triumphalist view. Michael McMullan, Avoca Beach
Supermarket sweep-up
Andrew Caro, competition is one thing, co-operation in one market niche is quite another (Letters, September 25). I’ll see your Coles, Woolworths, IGA and Aldi and raise you Carrefour, Casino, Aldi, U Express, Intermarché, Lidl, Franprix and Monoprix. Tom McGinness, Randwick
Solar advantage
I can assure your ACT correspondent that here in Tasmania an off-peak period is available during weekdays from 10am to 4pm for customers on a time-of-use tariff to take advantage of solar power (Letters, September 26). There is also a night period and weekends are all off-peak. The rate is about 15 cents per kWh and it’s mainly green power too. Rowan Wigmore, Launceston
Can’t take it with you
You would think that a five-times married man in his 90s would have more on his mind than how to vicariously manage his multibillion-dollar company after his demise (“Murdoch case a best-kept secret”, September 26). He cannot take his billions with him but he can, he thinks, continue his influence by way of a like-minded son. It is so hard to relinquish power, which evidently becomes more addictive than money, but even power and money have to yield to the certitude and finality of death. Bernard Moylan, Bronte
Rupert Murdoch arrives for the second day of probate court hearings in Reno, Nevada.Credit: Emily Najera/The New York Times
My health, my info
Your correspondent wants the opt-out provisions of the MyHealth record abolished (Letters, September 26). With the scourge of scamming and hacking so prevalent, people have the right to keep their private health information private if they wish. We have already seen a major private health insurance fund hacked – why not MyHealth? Stephanie Edwards, Leichhardt
Strike gives rivals a lift
As a former chief executive of the NSW Taxi Council, you may be surprised that I have some sympathy for Ben Groundwater’s views (“Taxi drivers upset with Ubers at the airport? Cry me a river”, September 25). Taxi businesses, to be successful, need to provide reliable, quality services at a reasonable price. After Uber’s launch in Australia, the council fought hard to ensure that the industry had a viable future. This fight was based on achieving regulatory equity, and that fair and reasonable compensation for was paid to disadvantaged taxi licence owners.
We were largely successful on both counts. Taxi operating costs decreased, while those of ride-sharing companies increased, helping to level the playing field.The government established a genuine risk-based model for insurance, and not the nonsensical cross-subsidisation approach that ride-sharing firms argued for. Everyone now pays GST. Most critically, NSW taxi licence owners were compensated for loss. We strongly argued for and were successful in getting Australia’s most equitable compensation package. The future of the taxi industry is now firmly in its own hands.
Consumers have little tolerance for poor service. Any business knows that if you don’t look after your customers, you’re dead in the water. Uber is not perfect. It has come back to earth through a series of service challenges and controversies of its own. But going on strike is not the way win this battle.
Taxis can have a very bright future, but the industry must own it and not throw it away on frivolous industrial action that helps no one other than its competitors, notably Uber. Roy Wakelin-King, Sydney
I went from home to Sydney Airport in an Uber for under $60 and came home in a taxi at similar traffic density for $125 (“Passengers are flocking to Ubers”, September 26). They can’t both be a “fair” fare for the same trip, so something has to change for taxis to survive. Rob Baxter, Naremburn
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