Credit: Illustration: Cathy Wilcox
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THE COALITION
Peter Dutton is to the media what a king brown snake is to a barbecue: he soaks up all the attention but otherwise makes very little contribution to the occasion. One cannot afford to ignore him, but the excitement should not obscure the nature of his tactics.
I cannot forgive over the Voice, and as for the ″nuclear solution″, has no one heard of EIEO (energy in, energy out) in the production of the fuel, the materials for and construction of the plant and after about 30 years, the decommissioning of the plant?
The cost in both emissions and moolah over the whole project is horrendous. Perhaps Peter could be asked about that.
Judith Deucker, Grantham, Qld
How to not lead on policy direction
The role of political party leaders has changed from leading national policy direction for the benefit of the Australian people to using meaningless distracting antics to protect the party they lead from pertinent public scrutiny (Comment, ″Dutton bedevils in the detail″, 26/9).
Ruth Farr, Blackburn South
Remember Dutton’s advice on the Voice vote?
Shaun Carney’s insightful piece (Comment,″Dutton bedevils in the detail″, 26/9) on Dutton and the Coalition’s lack of details about their nuclear non-policy reminds us all of the oft-quoted mantra they used during the Voice referendum campaign: “If you don’t know, vote no”.
Methinks that negative, oft-repeated phrase is coming back to bite the ″Noalition″ on their collective backsides.
Sandra Kay Patton, Talbot
Coalition are no money managers
You have to laugh at Angus Taylor, Peter Dutton and the rest of the LNP when they criticise Labor over debt. It was Scott Morrison and the LNP that left us a trillion dollar debt. Best money managers? I don’t think so, and they shouldn’t be trusted ever again.
John Cain, McCrae
Both parties must sell policy, not short-termism,
An unnamed Coalition MP has reportedly stated that, should the government announce any tax changes to alleviate the housing crisis, ″we’ll run a scare campaign saying they’re after you next″.
Many voters would not be shocked, and increasing numbers believe that we will remain on the ship of knaves and fools unless the major parties are deserted by voters for principled, competent independents.
Alternatively, both major parties could concentrate on selling good policies based on equity and the national interest, and less on seeking some short-term political advantage.
Norman Huon, Port Melbourne
Lack of nuclear detail pulls focus from emissions
Peter Dutton’s refusal to provide details of his nuclear plan has already been very successful. It has taken focus away from his ineffective policy on emissions, including the extra gas, and even coal he wants into the 2030s.
John Hughes, Mentone
Drab and dreary negativity
As Shaun Carney has prophesied (Comment, 26/9), as we run up to the election, Peter Dutton will undoubtedly continue his appallingly drab and dreary negativity and deny the electorate any coherent numbers in regards to the whole nuclear debacle he is proposing.
The reason his colleagues continue to keep him as leader tells us much about their mindset. They think deception and obfuscation will dupe the electorate.
How about trying honesty and explanation?
Frank Flynn, Cape Paterson
THE FORUM
Words alone futile
Penny Wong, Anthony Albanese and co. should stop issuing futile calls for a ceasefire in the Palestine Occupied Territories. For as long as their US friends, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Anthony Blinken, send massive amounts of military aid to Israel, the attacks won’t stop any time soon.
The US has provided Israel with more than $US337 billion ($492 billion) in military aid since 1946, to say nothing of endless diplomatic support and obstruction of peace efforts. In August this year, a $US20 billion weapons package for Israel was approved by Congress.
Until sufficient muscle is used by Australia and others to pressure the US and Israel to stop their gruesome campaign, it is hard to see how this nightmare will end. More action, fewer words Penny Wong.
Jill Dixon, Northcote
IDF revenge isn’t swift
When I read about the dreadful Hamas raid on innocent Israelis on October 7, I was surprised that the Israeli security service, surely the world’s leader in that field, had not foreseen and prevented the attack. I thought IDF revenge would be swift and brutal. But I never thought the revenge would be such utter devastation as we have seen.
The Israeli PM has been clever to stave off attempts to rein in the bombing, but the IDF seems to be able to degrade Gazans and West Bank citizens without restraint. Now we see it about to obliterate Lebanon. What does it take to stop it? Why does the US keep feeding it the bombs to drop on Muslims? It will take decades to restore living conditions, and who will pay? At the least, Australia should take the strongest diplomatic action in protest.
David Lamb, Kew East
Negative gearing
Steve Hamilton (Comment, “Negative gearing has not had a fair hearing”, 26/9) makes some salient points in arguing that negative gearing is not the bogeyman it is claimed to be. But there is at least one aspect of the issue he overlooks.
Just as we rail against companies shifting income and profits to low-tax jurisdictions, there is a similar issue involved in negative gearing. Specifically, negatively geared investors are shifting income and profits through time to take advantage of lower future tax rates when realising income from a property sale. That differential is partly due to the (arbitrary) discount applying to long-term capital gains. But it can also reflect timing of property sale to benefit when taxable income would be low, such as in retirement.
In the extreme, such an investor might have a high superannuation balance and consequent tax-free income, and no other taxable income such that they face a zero tax rate, meaning there might be no tax payable on capital gains from the property sale. In this case, even removing the capital gains tax discount would not solve the problem of exploitation of tax system distortions.
Far better to take actions to prevent negative gearing – such as limiting tax deductibility of borrowing costs to income from the property (and allowing carry forward of any resulting losses to to offset future capital gains).
Kevin Davis, Emeritus Professor of Finance, University of Melbourne
Capital gains distortion
Negative gearing is fair and equitable. If you lose money on one ASX share you can offset it against profits on another. Real estate investment and salary should be treated no different. What matters is your total income.
The only unfair distortion is the capital gains tax concession. Any capital gain when you sell your share is rightly considered income. Yet the profit when you sell your property investment is taxed at half the rate.
Chris Lloyd, Professor of Business Statistics, Melbourne Business School
Politicians’ conflicts
For too long, there’s been an undeclared conflict of interest among too many federal MPs who, thanks to good journalism, we know own not just one or two but five or more investment properties.
No wonder so many politicians go weak at the knees, for the wrong reasons, when a group of genuinely committed MPs want to do something to fix the tax system that is hurting younger generations and stuffs up the economy by using the blunt instrument as interest rates to tame inflation.
Negative gearing would be fine, in theory, if it only applied to newly constructed homes whereas at present investors play a part in forcing up the price of built homes.
Bernadette George, Mildura
Self-funded benefit
I have every sympathy with the plight of renters in today’s crazy housing market, let alone for those who will quite possibly never achieve home ownership. My husband and I both worked hard and managed to buy and sell various investment properties over the years.
We definitely reaped the benefits of negative gearing, but now, as a consequence of our planning, we are fully self-funded retirees who thereby save the taxpayer roughly $50,000 a year by not claiming any pension benefits. Is this an aspect of the argument worth considering?
Christine Harris, Mordialloc
Home owning benefits
Houses are not the only properties people invest in. If you have to pay tax on the income you earn from a property, you should be entitled to declare the cost of making that income. This is true for hotels, motels, caravan parks, childcare centres, aged care facilities and so on. Will these investment properties be treated differently?
Affordable government housing and rental property initiatives are a far more efficient and sustainable way of tackling the housing crisis. There is a direct, long-term benefit to society and the economy, when people become home owners.
Peter Kerber, Great Western
Slowing ageism
Watching yesterday’s National Press Club address ″Why Australia Needs An Ageism Awareness Day″, the futility of these necessary but ‘fluffy’ days shows that change in this area, as with racism, sexism, climate change awareness and action and so on, will take generations to address, and just might be beyond us.
In the course of the address, Laura Tingle referred to, as most of us would, her dear old Grandma, a phrase dripping with an endemic positioning with regard to our older citizens. No one picked her up on it. As with all our prejudicial stances, the ability to change is near impossible.
Graeme Foley, Werribee
Patronising language
As we move towards an election , let’s ban the use of ″mum and dad investors″ and the ″bank of mum and dad″. Imposing significant
fines for politicians and media caught uttering these patronising terms could help moderate our blood pressure.
Belinda Burke, Hawthorn
Count your lessons
Re your correspondent, (Letters,″Here be the lesson″), 26/9), the ″amount of times″ that I read poor grammar that probably affects both ″you and I″ is surely similar. Amount is a volume, thus not to be used when the meaning is ″number of times″. Similarly, if I would say ″me″ when alone, then I use it when joined, thus use affects both ″you and me″ – no one would say ″affects I″. I’m so pleased there is someone else who appreciates good grammar.
Louise Kloot, Doncaster
Less, nevermore
Add violations against grammar
to the supermarkets’ rap sheets. They hoisted ″10 items or less″ on cashier columns all over the country, leading to the decline of which your correspondent writes (Letters, 26/9).
If the entities can be counted, “fewer” is appropriate. “Less” is for uncountable nouns, such as air, sand or noise.
Barbara Chapman, South Yarra
A harsh sentence
Being undeniably of a pedantic disposition, I agree wholeheartedly with your correspondent (“Here
be the lesson”, 26/9). To her
lament, I’d like to add the modern profusion of unnecessary commas making sentences almost incomprehensible. I spotted seven in one sentence this morning. Furthermore, sentence construction deserves more accuracy in the name of clarity. Perhaps the headmaster who was a timid wretch in grade 1 in 1952 (Letters, “The magpies reply”, 26/9) is still available for grammar lessons.
Elizabeth Harley, Canterbury
Advice for nothing
My sympathies are with your correspondent (Letters, 26/9). I shudder also because few people know that it is ″different from″and ″similar to″, (not ″different to″). I shudder at ″for free″. What’s the matter with ″for nothing″? Oh well. We all need a cause.
Carol Fountain, Mentone
Lesson learnt
Your correspondent (Letters, 26/9), provided a timely critique on the misuse of ″fewer″. Here endeth the lessen.
James McDougall, Fitzroy North
Sing out
The singing is not ‘appalling’ (Letters, ″Singing coaches needed″, 26/9) and judgment is not appropriate – if you feel like joining in, just sing and enjoy it. You don’t need ‘a lovely voice’ or singing lessons, and spontaneous singing, any time, does not require a ‘choir coach’. Generations of Australian kids have been embarrassed out of opening their mouths to sing by such a limited view. Anyone is allowed to sing!
Marjorie Cornelius, Balwyn
Sing proud
Why is it that the great majority of our AFL footballers, including coaches, don’t sing the national anthem at the commencement of the game? Is it because they don’t know the words, or what? Please don’t give me the excuse that they’re focusing on their game. It’s an embarrassment and a disgrace that our anthem is ignored.
Alan Muir, Mount Eliza
Sing loud
Re Letters (26/9) and the lack of singing coaches. Try singing harmoniously with a group of 20 blokes, after you’ve run 20 kilometres, been knocked, prodded and pushed – plus a coach yelling at you for two hours.
David Cayzer, Clifton Hill
AND ANOTHER THING
Credit: Illustration: Matt Golding
Negative gearing
Two people standing at an auction. One says I need this house for shelter. The other says I want this house for tax breaks. I can’t think of a punchline.
Phil Labrum, Trentham
Here we go again. Whisper the words “negative gearing” and thebogeyman of all sorts of terrible things happening in the rental industry comes out to play.
Marie Nash, Balwyn
The former Liberal leader of SA owns 13 rental properties, presumably all negatively geared. Is it fair that taxpayers subsidise his wealth creation?
Corrado Tavella, Rosslyn Park, SA
During the collapse of the Chinese property market, Xi Xingping stated that ″a house is for living in, not for investing in″. I disagree with his politics, but in response to ″Negative gearing has not had a fair hearing″ (Comment, 26/9), I am in total agreement.
George Djoneff, Mitcham
US election
Trump and Vance may be attempting to follow in the comic tradition of Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, the Marx Brothers, Martin and Lewis, Milligan and Sellers (the Goons), but in the final assessment, they’re not funny.
Barrie Bales, Woorinen North
Judging by reports of the Trump election campaign, if he wins he’ll be the first president in US history to do so with blackmail and threats rather than promises.
Henry Herzog, St.Kilda East
Language please
Being of a sensitive pedantic disposition, I also cringe when I hear ″less″ being used instead of ″fewer″. It is a pity that your correspondent (Letters, 26/9) spoiled her letter by using ″amount” where she should have used ″number″.
Alison Liddell, Black Rock,
Oh, I do so agree with your correspondent (Letters, 26/9) on the topic of ″less″ and ″fewer″. I am afraid, however, that the majority are (sob!) against us.
Margaret Ady, Avondale Heights
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