Labor and Common Sense Are Mutually Exclusive
You’d be familiar with the term “mutually exclusive”.
It means that two things can’t be done at the same time, at least not without cancelling each other out.
Sadly, our politicians don’t seem to have heard of the phrase.
Take the NSW Labor Government’s budget, delivered last week, for instance.
The centre-piece of the budget was billions of dollars for public housing. Their big idea was to spend $5.1b tackling the housing crisis.
And yet, at the same time that they were promising new homes to ease the housing crisis, they were refusing to raise the tax free threshold on land tax.
By not raising the threshold to allow for skyrocketing property prices, more land owners, whose property values have increased, will now be paying land tax.
The government expects to generate an extra $1.5b in land taxes over the next four years as a result of their decision to keep the threshold in place.
And where does the Labor Government imagine landlords will get that extra money?
Hmmm. It’s a mystery.
But trust me, every renter knows.
You can’t tackle the housing crisis while, at the same time, implementing policies that drive up the cost of rentals. They are … say it with me … mutually exclusive!
Meanwhile, the NSW Government is promising to build 400 homes that will be leased on the cheap to those it deems “essential workers”?
Personally, I regard my local barista as an essential worker. If I don’t get my small latte (extra hot, one sugar) in the morning, nothing good can come from the day.
But apparently we need nurses and firefighters too. Whatever.
So to make living in Sydney more affordable for the 100,000 police officers, nurses, ambulance officers, firefighters and teachers in the city, the Government will build 400 homes.
Clearly math is not this government’s strong point.
I mean, unless they plan on having 250 people bunk in together, it just doesn't work.
Speaking of a 1-in-250 chance at scoring a government subsidised home, those same workers have a 1-in-37 chance at winning a bet on Crown Casino’s roulette wheel.
That’s right. Crown actually offer better odds at solving your housing cost problems than the Government.
Faced with the math, Planning Minister Paul Scully defended the 400 homes as “a start”.
The gaming room at Crown Casino would also be a start - and the odds are better.
The only conclusion is that governments are far more committed to being re-elected than they are to serving constituents and solving problems.
They know 400 homes will barely make things better while freezing the land tax threshold will certainly make things worse. But they don’t care.
They just want to be able to announce big plans while hoping you and I never think too hard about them so as to be impressed.
Funnily enough, they might just find that serving the public and being re-elected, far from being mutually exclusive, are actually mutually inclusive.
What a day it will be when they wake up to that.
Thanks James. I worked in the Land Tax department as a clerical assistant, when I finished my (now you’re unemployable) university degree. In that 7 long months I cried a lot and almost died of boredom because I had enough work to last about half an hr per day and my work colleagues were mostly teenagers, who happily purchased cheap items from the girl who’s brother worked at the docks.
I later discovered the Defence Department with an upgrade to Clerk, almost as tedious and I was turned off Govt bureaucracies for life.
The entire idea of taxing land that people own, so they don’t make too much money on it is pure theft, as is all income tax imo. It’s never made sense because although old Labor loved taxing the rich, now they’re taxing the many working class, who bought rental properties to help their future retirement. (Been there, done that, lost money, moved on 🤦🏻♀️).
In addition to this, so many Aussies are now renters, including us and my adult children. Many families cannot afford their current rent increases and are living in tents already up here in QLD.
And who doesn’t remember Paul Keating’s rental housing crisis in Sydney??? 😡
The NSW Govt are deliberately creating unbelievable hardship and the question is why?
Money can be raised by so many alternative means. This is just Labor hurting their own constituents again and again.
None of it makes sense to anyone with even half a brain. Up is down and good is bad. The slippery slope is getting steeper and we have no toboggans.
I wouldn't hold my breath, if I were one of those expecting a cheap house