Another crisis that’s all the government’s fault

With an election near suddenly there is a housing crisis, a cost-of living crisis, an inflation crisis and an interest rate crisis. And of course the Federal Government cops the blame, writes Mike O’Connor.

Those who form the view that what follows is one-eyed should note that I have an ­excuse in that the dog ate my glasses.

I retrieved them after a frantic chase, but only after he had given them a hearty chomp and removed one of the lenses, which may account for my clouded view of ­current events.

Sight-impaired I may be, but I am still able to discern that as a nation we seem to be in a crisis of crises.

Having emerged relatively ­unscathed from the Covid crisis, you might expect us to enjoy a respite from crises, but not with an election in a few weeks and so suddenly there is a housing crisis and a cost-of living crisis and an inflation crisis and an interest rate crisis.

There is a housing crisis because a lot of investors who owned rental properties decided to take advantage of an overheated property market and sell them to the buyers who were climbing over each other to pay too much for a house or apartment.

The housing crisis comes down to investors wanting to cash in on an overheated property market or Airbnb, writes Mike O’Connor.

It is also because with a few exceptions, local government authorities have done little to control the explosion of Airbnb by which an investor can rake in as much for a two-night rental as they would get for a week from a permanent tenant, so the full-time renters get the boot.

Rents increase due to demand ­exceeding supply and as has always been the case, some people can’t ­afford to pay, even with unemployment at a historically low figure.

This, somehow, is the fault of the federal government, which “should do something.”

Labor’s something is to subsidise people into housing, or at least 10,000 of them a year, which is great if you are one of the lucky ones.

If you’re not, then watch as ­government intervention in the ­housing market pushes prices even higher for those who have missed out on the hand-out as has happened every time the government wades into housing supply.

Those who paid too much for a property because they thought that cheap housing loans would last ­forever and ignored the warnings of boring baby boomers, who had lived with mortgage rates of 16 per cent, are now moaning about an interest rate crisis. The fact that they bought a house they could not afford is obviously the fault of the federal government, which should do something. Just how you legislate against poor judgment and/or stupidity is ­unclear, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could.

Squinting through my well chomped glasses, I was able to read, courtesy of Anthony Albanese’s Treasury spokesman Jim ­Chalmers, that when it came to the inflation ­crisis, Australians “didn’t give a stuff” about what was ­happening in the rest of the world.

How fortunate it is for Labor that Jim is possessed of a unique power that allows him to peer into the ­national psyche and divine what we are all thinking.

According to Jim, we regard ­ourselves as divorced from the rest of the planet and existing in an ­economic bubble at the bottom of the world where we enjoy an immunity to the forces that have seen inflation rates in other developed nations ­exceed that of Australia’s by ­significant margins.

I’m sorry Jim, but if you have ­another look you’ll find that we do “give a stuff” and are not so ­chronically ignorant as to think that we are quarantined from the ­economies of other nations. To admit, however, that we “give a stuff” would be to concede that ­rather
than an issue created by the ­government, which “should do ­something”, inflation is global and that would never do.

Thanks to the cost-of-living crisis, no politician can sally forth for ­another day of hilariously contrived electioneering photo opportunities without first memorising the price of broccoli, lettuce, a loaf of sourdough bread and a kilo of bananas lest he or she be found wanting if questioned by a probing media.

I’ve done a quick calculation and worked out that if Australians stopped spending money on ­expensive tattoos in their relentless efforts to look like everybody else, then they could afford to buy more broccoli, lettuce, sourdough bread and the occasional banana.

Some prices go up, some go down due to demand and seasonal and international influences. That’s the way it is, but the government really should do something.

The dog, which is not our dog but one we are dog-sitting, has just eaten my pen. I’m suffering from a canine crisis and the government really should do something.

Originally published as Another crisis that’s all the government’s fault