<< I doubled over with laughter at your comment:
“Labor is more likely to move in this direction than the other mob.” >>

So pleased to be of entertainment value, dear Soggy!

<< What direction Luddy? >>

A very different direction to what they are now going in. A direction that Bob Carr would like Labor to move towards. A direction that Gillard has said that she supports: “a sustainable Australia, not a big Australia”.

Yes Labor’s direction has been shirthouse for years. And now they are set to be totally crunched at the next election. So they’ve got every motivation to embrace a shift towards a stable population and an economy that doesn’t have to be forever rapidly growing in order to deliver real improvements across the whole country instead of duplicating services and infrastructure for ever-more people, while the overall quality of these services and infrastructure declines.

Labor is definitely more likely to move in this direction. There is not the slightest hint of this ESSENTIAL political move with Abbott, Turnbull nor anyone else in the other mob.

Suse, you live in Perth IIRC. What do you think will happen to those land/house prices when the Chinese demand for our resources declines, as it will over the next year or two and all those cashed up young blokes are out of work? Have a look at what's happened in the Newcastle region if you're not sure.

Nationally, house sales are at their lowest volume since 1996 (interest rates at about 10% then and population a couple of million smaller) and that isn't going to recover any time soon. Don't rely on the house to top up your super.

I'd normally agree with your last point, but the Gillard/Swan/Conroy rabble is so appalling it's hard to see how anything could approach it as an example of how not to run a Government.

I don't live in Perth now Antiseptic, although I did live there when we bought our first house , and the interest rate then was 17%! Labor was in power then too.

I agree we are lucky in WA for the most part, but I am not as pessimistic about the future here as others seem to be.

I believe house prices are on the rise again now, and I would far more trust housing than superannuation for my future.

I doubt whether the current political party in power will make one iota of difference either....

Suse, I don't give a damn about house prices personally. When you own everything, owe nothing, these things can't hurt you. If my value goes down, so will anything I might want to change to, so I'm pretty safe. The actual dollar value is immaterial, it's only the differential that is important.

What I worry about is a kid with a recently built new home, with a $100,000 equity that could easily be wiped out the way we are going.

I also fear for the 2 now in the market. Anyone buying now could very easily be buying near the top, [just a little over actually], & could easily fall into negative equity the way I see Oz heading.

I would not like to be buying in Perth right now, as I believe prices there have the greatest down side of anywhere in Oz. As a mining management based city it is very vulnerable. I see a repeat of Lithgow NSW as very possible, there.

Lithgow had coal mining & manufacturing based on the coal energy. When the underground mining became uncompetitive, the mines & industry dried up, so did the work. People live there only because good quality homes are very cheap, so it is now a welfare town.

Yes, I worry about the young people buying houses now too Hasbeen, just as my parents worried about me buying one years ago, when the interest rates were 17%.

The old will always worry about the young.

I wish I was like you though, and owned everything, and owed nothing : )

Just back from 2 weeks with my "family" in the Pacific. They have no problems with interest rates, don't have a bank account, live in a house most of us wouldn't. Have no problem with value as its clean and keeps the rain and wind out, priceless. As they don't have a car the price of petrol isn't a problem. My "family" do have their problems, health care, long way for a major op for one, and schooling for the kids is another, only have a local primary school. Foods good, no one is going hungry, don't know its dollar value but the land and sea gives plenty. Kids are happy and all the "family" are well. Makes for a reality check for us. The truth is they don't need much from us and at the same time can teach us a few things as well.