Negative gearing needs a small dose of reasonable reforms

Negative gearing needs a small dose of reasonable reforms. We should appreciate our mum and dad investors (“Labor gearing up to go negative on our mum and dad investors”, 13/2) and have good tax incentives for investment properties that result in new homes being built.

However, we should eventually implement some reasonable negative gearing and capital gains tax reforms for investment in existing properties, combined with other reforms to weight the playing field in favour of first-home buyers. We really only need enough rental properties to comfortably satisfy the natural market for renters. Anything more just distorts the market and locks people out of home ownership.

While overall housing supply and demand and people simply having somewhere to live are the most important concerns, my fear is the current arrangement that prizes housing as a financial investment tool subtly stymies our desire to cool house prices and tackle the housing shortage.

Michael Westacott, Cairns, Qld

In July 1985, the Hawke Labor government abolished negative gearing for all future rental property investors. The government reinstated full negative gearing in 1987. Perhaps the Albanese government could help us understand why the Labor government of the 1980s reversed its decision to abolish negative gearing after only two years.

Richard Reading, Kingscliff, NSW

Focus on vital issues

When will this Labor government deal with the things that matter? Apart from those invisible and underwhelming ministers, the Prime Minister continues to project a cohort of potluck leadership profiles. There’s the ghost of Whitlam (dream, spend and strut on the stage). Then the image of UK Labour (class warfare and tax cuts) for the true believers. We’ve even seen the emergence of Albo Dan, that unique Victorian experiment of spin, hip-pocket promises (energy savings) with constant doses of identity politics.

Sporty Albo has been active, collecting scarfs around the nation and promising millions for facilities. We’ve seen morally righteous Albo: my word is my bond. The kinder Albo seems to have disappeared, along with the blame-others Albo. Perhaps they’ll return.

He can play many parts but the Prime Minister still seems more comfortable in inner-city book clubs; the festivals, craft beers and photo ops being preferable to the hard grind of political reality and the challenges facing most voters such as housing affordability and cheap and reliable energy for consumers and businesses. The Prime Minister has to deal with the key issues. Border protection matters. Who we let into our country will define us into the future and determine social cohesion. That means the detainee crisis must be solved.

Glenn Marchant, Pascoe Vale, Vic

Writing on the wall

Hope no one from the Albanese government sees your headline “One-third of our kids can’t read” (12/2). Standard procedure would be to find another lazy billion dollars or so to throw at the problem. In recent decades, with education in particular, the more money governments spend, the quicker standards appear to plummet. The next headline would be “Half of our kids can’t read”.

Bruce Collison, Banks, ACT

Rethink Snowy

Snowy Hydro says the tunnel boring machine Florence is working at a snail’s pace and it may enlist a fourth machine (13/2). With the cost of building Snowy 2.0 already doubling to $12bn and still counting, it is looking more and more like a white elephant. Surely it is time to cut our losses and return to the drawing board.

Peter Clarke, Corinda, Qld

Learn from Poland

I was struck by the contrasting defence strategies between Poland and Australia. Poland is developing “such a level of deterrence that Putin will be discouraged from attacking Poland” (“Warsaw goes all out on military build-up”, 13/2), while in Australia, despite an increasingly assertive and menacing presence of China in the South China Sea, the defence strategy is one big hotchpotch where there is no clear idea as to what the aim of the defence force actually is (“Surface fleet review won’t ease Marles’ defence shambles”, 13/2).

Ron Hobba, Camberwell, Vic

Dilemma for US voters

Your editorial (“The decrepit v the unhinged”, 13/2) captures the essence of the presidential campaign in the US.

Surely the nation leading the free world can offer better presidential candidates? Both sides of politics must find sensible candidates. The Western world needs strong leadership. Totalitarian regimes are now stronger than ever and are more aligned than they have been since World War II. Now is not the time for complacency. America needs a circuit-breaker from the spiral of its decline in world affairs, for the sake of all of us.

David Muir, Brisbane