It is heartening to see some signs the Albanese government might be considering reforms to negative gearing and capital gains tax (“Positives of curbing negative gearing”, September 27). They could do worse than simply revert to the policies that the ALP took to the 2019 election, which largely reserved property tax breaks for those who actually create new housing stock rather than simply bid up the price of old bricks and mortar.
The reforms – which already enjoy a good level of electoral support – could be implemented now but timed to take active effect in the next term of government. This approach avoids the complaint that the government has no mandate to make such reforms in this term of government. It would also mean that the Coalition has to risk seeking to remove taxation reforms that have already passed both houses of parliament and are scheduled to take effect. And in addition, discuss the vast loss of revenue that would result from their plans, forcing them to say what spending they will cut or what taxes they will raise. Reversing a reform that is already in place is very different to opposing a proposed reform and would quickly put the Coalition – rather than the ALP – on the back foot. Tim Thornton, Northcote (Vic)
Labor is again flirting with changes to negative gearing.Credit: Marija Ercegovac
With rumours of negative gearing changes, the next few months will reveal which journalists and politicians have investment properties. Todd Hillsley, Homebush
One day, the penny will drop for electors with long memories of the long-term economic damage that was inflicted on the Australian economy by the Howard-Costello government. The litany of decisions that created current problems of housing affordability and structural budget deficits include the changes to capital gains tax, superannuation tax largesse for retirees, wasting the “rivers of gold” on unnecessary tax handouts and a sequence of high spending budgets that did not achieve improved economic productivity. We would be wise to remember this when assessing the historical economic competence of the two major parties at the next election. Dennis Metcalf, Drummoyne
There is no need to give up on tax reform; it can be achieved with bipartisanship. The current parliament provides several examples of it, such as establishing a weak federal integrity body, inertia on reforming political donations/advertising laws and an ineffectual freedom of information regime.
By taking a “Team Australia” approach, both parties of government could agree to recalibrate the overly generous CGT discount, modify negative gearing, abolish nonsensical franking credits and return super to its original intent rather than the tax and estate planning behemoth it has become.
They could acknowledge that John Howard was under the illusion that we were in a 60-year mining super cycle, with rivers of gold flowing. As a “quid pro quo” there would be a reduction in personal and business income tax which rewards effort and wealth creation and thereby reduces justification for alternate tax minimisation-avoidance strategies. Carlo Ursida, Kensington (Vic)
In calls to eliminate the 50 per cent discount on CGT for assets held longer than a year, the rationale for it is either not understood or ignored. CGT is intended to be levied on the real, post-inflation gain on an asset. Originally, the cost base was adjusted by movements in the CPI to ensure only ‘real’ gains were taxed. There was no discount. However, these myriad calculations became unworkable, so a simpler flat discount was applied, and CPI indexation was abandoned. If the 50 per cent discount is eliminated, then CPI indexation should be restored. Bruce Watson, Kirribilli
Eric Scott says (a little sarcastically) that he “cannot believe that people buy houses to rent out as some kind of altruistic contribution to the housing shortage” (Letters, September 27). I must inform Eric that this kind of landlord may be rare, but we do exist: our (very fortunate) family owns two investment properties, which we rent to extended family members at significantly reduced rates on a lifetime tenancy basis. This is largely to save those individuals from continuing to be preyed on by the brutal Australian rental market. Jaine Stockler, Stanmore
Can it really be that the greed and selfishness of some people allow them to cheerfully consign a whole generation to second-class status, to relative poverty and even homelessness? Are those clever ones who amassed a property portfolio really happy to sit smugly on their gains and watch societal cohesion and the Australian lifestyle splinter? And, to what extent do sections of the media, whipping up fear of those changes, bear responsibility? Jennifer Briggs, Kilaben Bay
Roughly 11 per cent of Australian adults are landlords, while the proportion of renters has risen from 30 per cent to 40 per cent in the two decades of the disastrous tax policies that have caused the housing crisis. A political party that addresses the 40 per cent will have more chance of taking government than a party that listens to the howling of the privileged when their intergenerational theft is threatened. David Sargent, Tennyson (SA)
Manyana madness
Have we all gone mad? Razing a forest for a few unnecessary and inappropriate houses will cater only to the rich and, as your article reported, be empty most of the year (“Forest to be razed for holiday homes”, September 27). How heartbreaking for the residents of Manyana, how admirable of them to keep fighting and how shameful of the authorities to allow a forest to be destroyed for no good reason. Heather Johnson, West Pennant Hills
Local resident Peter Winkler from Manyana Matters Credit: Peter Rae
My heart goes out to the residents of Manyana and the plans to demolish coastal forests for yet more holiday homes. The small coastal town in which l live has constant proposals to cover whole green hillsides with more housing, cancelling all the charm and the very reason tourists are currently attracted here. If we keep turning our seaside towns into mini Bondis, would it not be easier to stay in the city before we replicate the cheek-by-jowl way of life here down south? Greg Vale, Kiama
The Albanese government has yet again failed us on the environment by approving the housing development at Manyana, south of Jervis Bay. This development, originally approved by the state government in 2008, is on a parcel of land that miraculously survived the January 2020 Currowan bushfires and is a habitat for the endangered greater glider and the threatened grey-headed flying fox. Consideration should be given to former Shoalhaven mayor Amanda Findley’s suggestion that the state government should purchase the land. Clearly, neither level of government is prepared to say enough is enough. This elite development will do nothing to ease housing affordability and supply but will be devastating for the environment. We can do better than this. Robyn Thomas, Wahroonga
Good news is lifesaving
In a news cycle dominated by stories of war and suffering in the Middle East, what a joy it was to read about Alice O’Keefe and her research into the eradication of cancerous brain cells (“Scientists’ magnetic plot to ‘cook’ cancer cells”, September 27). While some people in this world are intent on indiscriminately destroying human life, it is good to know that there are others who are working hard to preserve it. Phil Peak, Dubbo
Alice O’Keefe is a PhD student at the University of Wollongong developing tiny crystals that can heat up and kill brain cancer cells.Credit: Michael Gray
Labor tackles the hard issues head on
Since the election, Anthony Albanese has been keen not to risk an early return to opposition (“It’s your final quarter, Mr Dutton”, September 27). What the PM should also consider, however, is the “ratchet effect”. Of the two major parties, Labor is generally the one that implements social reform while the Coalition either holds the line or winds things back a bit. Labor introduced Medicare, the NDIS and universal superannuation. They have not been significantly wound back. If Albanese is too gun-shy to tackle gambling advertising, negative gearing or capital gains tax, we can be sure that they will survive the next Coalition government. In the past 75 years, Labor has been in opposition 68 per cent of the time. When Labor is defeated in 2025, or in 2028 or later, it should be remembered for being a government that tackled the hard issues; not one that clung to power for power’s sake and left no worthwhile legacy. Mike Reddy, Vincentia
Death of the innocents
I was six years old in 1941 when German tanks rolled into my village in then Yugoslavia, now Croatia. In 1944, we packed a few belongings onto a horse-drawn cart to head via Hungary to Austria, the land of my family roots. I learnt to beg for bread and hay for our horses in the Hungarian language taught to me by my grandmother. In Austria, we were shot at from an aeroplane and I witnessed a dead man’s body, butchered by Russians for preventing the attempted rape of a lady caring for part of my split family. My experiences were nothing compared to the mass killings and destruction in Gaza and on the border with Lebanon in the current “conflict”. My heart cries out for the death of innocent women and children by weapons more lethal and accurate than anything in my story. Ferdo Mathews, Robina (Qld)
In the raw
Rather than Buff Point, a garden in Eden would probably provide a better place for testing the naked truth (Letters, September 27). Joy Cooksey, Harrington
A journalist’s lament
It would be difficult to imagine a more pretentious and unworkable idea than the proposal to introduce a ranking regime for journalists (“Greste wants professional register for local journalists”, September 27). Self-appointed bodies that style themselves the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom and Journalism Australia are suggesting they should assess the quality of a journalist’s output and award a badge of approval to be appended to their bylines. How this system might work in radio and on television is left unsaid.
Worse, these would-be gauleiters of the trade imagine a scheme under which they would charge their fellow scribblers a fee for membership “if they met certain standards”. Who is to judge that, and on what basis? How revealing, too, that Journalism Australia lists among its aims the need to recognise “ethics, standards and processes” and to ensure that approved journalists adhere to a “code of conduct”. We might hope that a decent journalist does that already. In any event, to speak of professionalism and its standards fails to admit that any person, trained, untrained, and bound by no ethical standards at all, may award themselves the title of “journalist”, even Alan Jones. David Salter, Hunters Hill
Fauna fire-bombed
In all of the media reporting of the burn on the northern beaches that got out of control, I have seen no comments on the effect these have on local wildlife, especially in spring with many animals now in their breeding season (“We must learn the lessons of escaped Oxford Falls burn”, September 27). Local wildlife rescue organisations have had burnt and orphaned wildlife brought into care from the areas affected by the fires, adding to the usual load of injured and orphaned animals at this time.
Perhaps our fire service could consider the First Nations people who use cool burns to reduce fuel. It could be done in winter instead of spring, lessening the death toll. Eira Battaglia, Seaforth
Oxford Falls is the second planned hazard reduction burn to get dangerously out of control around the northern beaches lately. In 2021, much of North Head was devastated in a similar fashion. These huge burns are wrong for metropolitan Sydney and must stop. Research shows bushfire smoke is poisonous and statistics show when bushfires occur, hospital admissions increase and deaths are hastened for those with respiratory complaints. On the other hand, near Taronga Zoo last month, small-scale cool burns were conducted almost imperceptibly even to locals. Nearby, the navy mechanically cleared bush a few metres from HMAS Penguin’s perimeter fence.
Your article says that “most burn planning and approval is done by the paid staff of fire agencies”. Some are on six-figure salaries. One hopes the huge burns aren’t to justify their own existence.
Tim Egan, Mosman
Toothless watchdog
The ACCC investigation into Coles and Woolworths will be toothless and pointless unless they are forced to relinquish their ownership of petrol stations (Letters, September 27). Petrol prices are marked up and then discounted to supermarket customers. The fake petrol discounts force consumers to stay with one supermarket chain and one petrol chain. Years ago, the ACCC was totally suckered and allowed this to continue. Consumer and supplier abuse is the outcome that was predictable from the start. The ACCC has failed to protect consumers and has been outplayed by corporate interests. If it can’t fix this it should be replaced. Ben Balzer, Strathfield
Sydney Swans fansCredit: The Age
South Melbourne v Fitzroy 2.0
The Swans and the Lions last met in a grand final in 1899. The Lions won, it rained all day and so only six goals were kicked. My red and white fingers are crossed for the reverse: Swans win, fine day and lots of goals. Tony Nicod, Collaroy
Postscript
Readers welcomed the news that the competition watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, was investigating grocery prices, (“‘Price down’ supermarket specials pushed up inflation: PM”, September 24).
Meredith Williams wrote that “to blame Coles and Woolworths for inflation is drawing a long bow, but these revelations certainly suggest the ‘big two’ have made a direct and significant contribution to the pain consumers have been feeling for many months”.
Raising prices faster than the rate of inflation? We’re onto you, Colesworth.Credit: iStock
But nothing has spurred our readers on like this week’s revelation that the government has asked the Treasury department to model changes to negative gearing (“Negative gearing in Labor’s sights as Albanese readies for election battle”, September 25. Scores of letters flooded in, mostly in favour of any change which would unlock the anomalies in our housing market and make it more affordable.
Given the prevailing sentiment, it took a brave person to stick their head up and defend the rights of property investors. On Thursday, Sydney architect Chirayu Shah explained that his investment unit in Carlingford was for the benefit of his young children, but may have to be sold if the negative gearing laws were changed (“Property investors fear forced sales under negative gearing changes”, September 26).
Increasing numbers of children live in families experiencing homelessness, wrote Louise Sorbello. “It is precisely this sort of intergenerational inequity that the Albanese government needs to tackle by ending negative gearing.”
But Evan Parsons warned, “Has federal Labor learnt nothing from the outcome of the 2019 federal election? Why give a free kick to Peter Dutton and his media allies?”
The biggest news of the week was surely the demise of Tupperware. I’ve just moved house, discovering that half the contents of my kitchen cupboards comprised non-matching pieces of plastic storage. As satirical website The Shovel wrote: “Storage company Tupperware filed for bankruptcy this week, after they couldn’t find a single f------ lid for any of the 10 million plastic containers in their warehouse.” Precisely.
Margot Saville, Letters editor