Damien

As you write in your article
"A co-ordinated land release program could have begun with the states; aggressive rezoning to higher density could have been forced on the states. A vendor tax could have been introduced to discourage speculation; money from the bursting Federal budget could have gone to the states on a per new house basis to remove charges and levies that have ballooned to well over $100,000 in some cases."

Planning is a State government issue, ways that states can reduce property prices are as follows:
the states could have made more land available;
the state can re-zone land from previous industrial and commercial;
the states often take up to 2 years to approve any re-zoning
States can lower their levies and taxes.

However the state did not do it because they are getting record revenue from charges and levies because house prices had gone up.

Costello and Howard got a promise from the state that Stamp duty would be removed from housing, when they agreed to the GST, it is the States who backed out of the agreement.

A vendor tax? In one sentence you are advocating another tax on housings, and the next you are saying taxes should be reduces to increase affordability? The NSW gov tried a vendor tax, the tax end up being passed onto the buyers, therefore increasing cost of the property, it was a disaster.

Please place blame where it is warranted, the State Government had enjoyed record revenue the property boom, even through they promised the Federal Government in 1999, that those taxes will be removed by 2004. The states did not planned in advance to increase availability of housing, the state government make it expensive and time consuming for a developer to apply for re-zoning. To blame all this on the Federal Government, when the State Government are enjoying and wasting record revenue is highly unfair

There must be few people more tired of Peter Costello's vociferous posturing than I am.
Australia has enjoyed a resources boom without parallel for ten to twelve years with the country awash with money. The Howard government flogged off public assets left, right, and centre whilst introducing a skewed GST that also flooded federal coffers with cash. Throughout that time hardly a government project of note was introduced, despite the desperate need for many such projects. And yet, Mr Costello loudly and frequently claims credit for leaving a surplus. To not have done so would have been an example of incompetence that even Costello supporters would have had to admit. A budget surplus under such conditions is a more than reasonable expectation - it is surely inevitable. Mr Costello simply did his job, and was well paid for doing so.

Prices are determined by supply and demand.

Costello increased demand by making people wealthier, and the labor states strangled supply by restricting development.

A sure fire recipe for increasing prices.

Rudd by making people poorer will surely reduce house prices.

As evidenced by his Press Club song and dance and his recent TV appearances Costello truly believes he has “paid off Labor’s debt” (acquired during a period of international recession, incidentally) all by himself.

Ahem. The best terms of trade in our history and some $250b of assets sales in fact resulted in a reduction of that debt from $96b to $50b according to the Australian Taxation Office.

“Total Treasury Bond issuance during 2008-09 will be $5.3 billion, while scheduled
maturities during this period, net of Australian Government holdings, will be $5.1 billion. As a result, the total stock of fixed coupon Treasury Bonds on issue, net of Australian Government holdings, will be around $49.6 billion as at 30 June 2009.”

http://www.ato.gov.au/budget/2008-09/content/bp1/downloads/bp1_bst7.pdf
Treasury bonds = Debt.

He also refuses to acknowledge any responsibility for the $620b of private overseas debt that helped finance the store and bank credit fuelled ‘miracle’ economy of which he is so proud.

Damien has tunnel vision.Punishing developers?It was the State Labor Govts greed that destroyed the housing market.37% of a house/land package is made up of state taxes.They limited the supply of land to maximise their profits.Federal Labour left us with debt 12 yrs ago of $90 billion.The liberals payed this off,put $90 billion in the future fund and left the Rudd Govt with surplus of $20 billion.Why would anyone give money to State Labor Govts to urinate against the wall?They are the ones primarily responsible for infrastructure!

What sort of a mess would we be in now if Federal Labor had been in power for the last 12 yrs?Just look ot our State Labor Govts,they are the breeding grounds for what we get in Canberra.

Mate, just leave the statement as "The Howard government did nothing" and you'd be pretty right.

Except scare people and bribe people that is.