Just remember, put the GREENS LAST.

Australia is incapable of defending itself from China or any other country, thanks to inadequate spending on defence, and the ridiculous purchase of some totally unproven (because it doesn't exist) bitzer submarines that might be all in service in 50 years. The PC feminisation of the defence force is also a handicap. And, the insulting of America and sneering at Donald Trump by our political idiots doesn't encourage help from that quarter.

Then there is Clive Palmer's graphic ads about the West Australian government's facilitation of Chinese airports in that state. The WA premier says the claims are untrue, but arrogantly assumes he doesn't have to prove they are not true. If they are untrue, why has legal action against Palmer not been taken? Possible answer: it is true that China is coming and going in WA, via their own airstrips.

Paul,

And save paying rent for that much longer: saving for a deposit AND paying rent in the meantime would surely add more than $ 400/month. In other words, what one saves in rent can go towards the mortgage repayments that much more.

Taking your figure of $600,000, and a 5 % leg-up of $ 30,000: that's around half a year's pay for many people ? Even at 5 %, trying to save that much AND pay rent all the while stretches out to quite a few years of hardship, which would be shortened if one didn't have to also pay rent. So it all helps.

And another thing: after, say, twenty years, given inflation rates, mortgage payments of $ 400 payments would be chicken feed - most mortgagees would have upped their monthly payments and be able to pay off their mortgage sooner.

And the sooner they can get that deposit, the sooner they can reach that happy stage. Jesus, trying to save for a 20 % deposit must be a nightmare. $ 120,000 ?! Two years' pay, saved ? While paying rent ? For how long ? Ten or fifteen years ? Which probably hit just when the kids are demanding more and marriages are coming under strain ?

Anything helps when it comes to a mortgage deposit. I hope Shorten borrows that policy.

Cheers,

Joe

Clive Palmer is a joke, he made the claim China has two airports
Like most things he has said, it is not true

Dear Belly,

Nick Dyrenfurth writing for The Monthly recently,
tells us that Bill Shorten has long been under-
estimated. He wouldn't make it as a unionist, they
said. Yet at the age of 31 he became Victorian
Secretary of the Australian Worker's Union in 1998
and National Secretary 3 years later. He wouldn't
survive the cut and thrust of political life, they
said. Yet he won pre-selection and a seat in
Parliament, and he was a more than effective
Parliamentary Secretary and Minister during the
Rudd-Gillard years, spear-heading the creation of NDIS.

Against all odds, in 2013, Shorten won a ballot
against Anthony Albanese to lead the Federal Labor
Party. As Opposition Leader he saw off two Prime
Ministers - Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull (where
are they today?). Bill Shorten has now been Labor
Leader for longer than Paul Keating, Kevid Rudd or
Julia Gillard.

In just a few days Bill Shorten might be Australia's
31st Prime Minister.

Yuyutsu,
>I think that the most effective way to defend Australia and its long shores from
>Chinese invasion is to develop our own nuclear and biological weapons.
I'm surprised you think so - I think it would have the reverse effect.
Developing our own nuclear weapons would show us to be untrustworthy as it would flout the nuclear non proliferation treaty which we've both signed and promoted. Developing biological weapons would be even worse, because it would flout international law.
And having WMDs would make us a target for a preemptive strike by countries that feel threatened by them.

China wouldn't even want to invade us, as it's only interested in territory that it has a historical claim to. Usually a tenuous claim, but it has no claim at all to Australia.

Developing the capability to kill millions of innocent people at a time is worse than doing nothing.