Treasurer can’t keep passing the economic buck overseas

I am not surprised Jim Chalmers mentioned “responsible economic management” five times in his relatively short opinion piece since a cost-of-living crisis, housing crisis, energy poverty, entrenched inflation that holds up interest rates, stagnant industrial productivity and low economic growth all point to irresponsible economic management (“Building economic buffers crucial in an unstable world”, 26-27/10). The improvement in the government’s finances over the past three years was due to record commodity prices and personal income tax receipts, and was achieved in spite of, not due to, government policies. The Treasurer’s comments about building a resilient and more productive economy are quite ridiculous since the government’s energy and industrial relations policies are increasing our dependency on China and throttling investment and productivity improvements.

Ron Hobba, Camberwell, Vic

Jim Chalmers’ claim that our persistent inflation is due to Israel defending its right to exist is a national embarrassment. Economics 101: damaging inflation persists when demand exceeds supply and pushes prices up. Supply is tight because of record business failures due to specific Labor actions or inactions limiting housing supply, pushing up energy costs, restricting productivity with new union powers and enormous regulation, political blocking of new businesses, and diversion of large numbers of workers to public sector roles that leaves real businesses short of workers. Demand is up because of excessive immigration, and cash handouts to people who then compete to buy things in short supply, especially houses or goods and services. Chalmers’ real problem is his cabinet has no real-world experience. The federal opposition, with backgrounds in the military, policing, running export businesses, farms or economic consultancies, and commercial law, will know how to run the country effectively.

Ian Brake, Mackay, Qld

Wishful thinking

Australia needs to have an informed, realistic and adult conversation about nuclear power. Hopefully this will commence with the parliamentary inquiry into this topic; the committee will have representatives from Labor, the Coalition and the crossbench, and the final report is due no later than April 30, 2025. Like a lot of Australians in the political centre, I’m fed up with Labor’s policy of pooh-poohing nuclear power and the Coalition’s politicised promotion of nuclear energy and its benefits without realistic assessment of the difficulties of developing a nuclear industry.

The seven nuclear reactors proposed by the Coalition will provide a maximum of 12 per cent or Australia’s electricity needs in 2050 with the other 88 per cent being supplied by renewables and some gas. In reality, the Coalition’s policy requires extensive expansion and upgrading of the grid in addition to heavy investment in renewables. The media increasingly follow the prevailing political winds. The majority of Australians sit somewhere in the middle. They deserve informed dialogue not wishful thinking or extreme and poorly informed conversations.

Andrew Whyte, Mt Martha, Vic

Housing horrors

Tom Dusevic’s article is a welcome contribution to the debate on housing policy in Australia (“Stop torturing our young on housing affordability”, 26-27/10. It’s certainly good to see the Business Council of Australia stress the potential for a productivity dividend alongside an improvement in intergenerational equity associated with a boost in housing supply. This is likely to take considerable time. What if the current focus on increasing supply was supplemented by a desire to decrease demand for existing dwellings by property investors? Given that the Australian Bureau of Statistics reports about 35 per cent of all housing investment is made up by investors, altering the law to limit tax deductibility of interest to new dwellings would take enormous wind out of the rise in house values. The reaction of affected property investors would be such that any federal government would need to be brave.

Bob Miller, Leederville, WA

Desperate Russia

The fact Russia is stirring the pot in the Middle East by providing targeting data for Houthi missile attacks on civil and military shipping in the Red Sea is grounds for concern (“Russia helped Houthis carry out attacks on global shipping”, 26-27/10). Add this distraction to the use of Iranian drones and missiles, and North Korean munitions and troops in Ukraine, and it is becoming clear Russia is getting desperate. Of note has been the UN free pass to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and associated war crimes when compared to the biased and unreasonable treatment of Israel. Clearly the world is becoming hostile. Throw the US election into the mix and it generates worrying times for all.

Tom Moylan, Dudley Park, WA