Perhaps Peter Saunders and Yabby would care to comment on the following post, recently posted to an earlier forum on "A crisis in housing affordability" at http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=4834#98113 :

"Some of the comments made here are absolute BS. I am 25 too, I rent and it`s the worst it has been for decades. You are foolish to think 'It`s never been easier to buy....' Nearly every house in Perth is over 350000 dollars. And if you want a house in a good suburb your in the 600-1.5 million dollar mark. When my dad bought built his first few houses in really nice southern suburbs of perth it cost him 250-250km on the block built. We young people don`t have half a million so we have to rent, and then when you rent a place out you get kicked out so the owner can sell his house and make a fortune. It`s so unfair, as a young guy that`s engaged I want some stability and if i have to move out every 6 months. Nothing's getting done about it and quite frankly if they continue to do nothing whilst cutting off welfare benifets, you just watch all us young people, homeless out on the street and living in cars, while all the baby boomers sit back in their million dollar houses in the best suburbs knowing they paid 80 grand to buy it 10 years back, and then they rent out there 2nd 'investment house' out for $500/week and don't have to work. That's why there is a skills shortage, never has there been a time in Australian history when people have been so rich and been able to retire so early. I'm going to have to work my ass off to get somewhere in this greedy world. Down with all the lazy baby boomers who have wrecked it for us!"

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Apparently, workers should resent having to pay taxes for social welfare, but apparently it's OK that millions of people in circumstances similar to that faced by OZZYRENTER have to sweat in order to support property speculators' lifestyles.

Here am i grumbling about the GST when i know pensioners struggling to keep a roof over their heads.Some pensioners hobble around delivering junk mail because the waiting list for govt housing is 5 or 6 years long.In the meantime $400 a fortnight off the top of their meager incomes is spent on accommodation.Would you believe,here in Qld the govt houses are being revamped and sold on the private market.Maybe the author should move to my district and look at the real world.Of course we have bludgers and wastrels but we also have a lot of genuinely needy people.How the elderly and infirm ever manage to exist on such a pittance eludes me.

Daggett, of course Perth real estate is booming! Everything else is booming too,
as people flood in, to take advantage of the mining boom. Demand is far
higher then supply.

You can still get a house built in Perth for 150k$. The problem is land and it’s the
State Govt which has not released enough of it. It’s the same old story, State Govt
officials wanting to avoid urban sprawl, limited land release, which now means
huge real estate prices. Last time I noticed, they sold off blocks for 300k$. State
treasury does well, but by the time somebody builds a house on that land, it will
still cost 450k$.

I don’t’ see why you blame it all on property speculators. Those houses are rented
out in the end, so creating a larger pool of rentals, at lower prices then would have
been otherwise. My young nephew rents a place with a couple of others his
age. They each pay 80$ and that covers the rent. Its not a flash house, but quite
liveable.

What seems to me to have changed is expectations. Back when I was 25, I certainly
can’t remember any of my friends even thinking of buying a home in a good suburb.
We paid a lot higher interest rates then is paid now, so the problem was virtually
as great as it is now. So we compromised and found solutions.

Some bought old run down places, then patched them up as they could, then upgraded
later in life. Others with smart partners, both worked fulltime, one salary was banked,
they lived off the other and owned their own places within a few years.
Some went up North, made a quid in mining there, then came South and paid cash
for their houses. I built my own house and lived in a half built house for years.
It took about 10 years until I finally could afford carpets!

Now, they are 25, they want everything easily and instantly. They blame everyone
and everything, even babyboomers it seems. We got off our butts, why can’t this
generation?

Bronwyn and Frank,

I agree that the current definition of one hour a week is inadequate. I simply want the debate to proceed on a factual basis. It seems that once upon a time someone somewhere blamed John Howard for changing the definition so others just keep repeating this initial untruth, while someone else somewhere blamed Paul Keating and others of a different political stripe keep repeating this untruth. It is similar to the way in which The Australian keeps claiming that the states have “squandered” their GST revenue, so credulous souls start to believe it even though it is not true. Any changes made to the method, as opposed to the definition, are made by the ABS.

I left the last letter off the link. I am sorry. Here it is again: http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/RN/2006-07/07rn18.pdf

I'm not surprised to see that such an article of looking upon others comes from the CIS. Funny how someone who wants to get past the rhetoric of poverty is using nothing but.

Yes, unemployment figures are down but what the author ignored, is that majority of those on the dole are working casual hours which gives the false figure of unemployment. Were the true figure of unemployment shown, it would be past 20% which is very sad.

How sad that people can't get much past casual labour and need welfare to survive. Also, the fastest growing welfare sector is the middle class for were they to remove this welfare, there would be little middle class left in Australia and every political party would be the dog's breakfast.

Thank you Peter Saunders for your timely and accurate article.

As a former resident in a Housing Commision area I can personally confirm that there are hordes of professional welfare recipients to whom dole bludging is a serious lifestyle choice. But since the Howard government got serious about getting rid of dole bludgers ten years ago, then the figures quoted by you that indicate the degree of welfare dependence today is really frightening.

Could I submit that you missed something? To what degree is the ever spiralling welfare bill the direct result of importing welfare and crime dependent minorities. I once read in Sydney's "Sydeny Morning Herald" that the Muslim suburb of Ausburn had Australia's highest proportion of long term welfare recipients (ironically, right under an article slamming Pauline Hanson.)

Importing people into this country who can not speak English and who are even illeterate in their own language is to burden the Australian people to an unacceptable degree. No wonder our hospitals are at crisis point.

We are importing people who are a drain upon our society for "humanitarian" reasons while giving the finger to our own productive people who are in need, and who's taxes paid for the social services that are being denied them.