The imported cars are cheaper and better.

Why spend $bns on subsidies for substandard products.

ALTRAV.

"...How many pay packets did it take to buy a house back then, and how many does it take to buy one now."

Good question, but completely irrelevant as there have been many variables added to house prices since, say, 1948.
Things like curb and guttering, footpaths, sealed roads, flush toilets (no more 48 door sedans), electricity, piped water and garbage collection.
I lived in Lidcombe in 1948 and apart from electricity and piped water we had none of the others.

A much better example is the motor car.
1948 Holden cost L760/-/- equal to 104 weekly wage packets
(2 years).

2019 Holden Commodore (cheapest model) $22,888 or 14 weeks wages.
(dearest model) $43,980 or 26 weeks and the Commodore, anywhere in the price range, is an incomparably better car than the 1948 model.

ALTRAV, you say "Unfortunately, history and the record shows, that the unions have been the single worst thing to have been allowed to live."

There are a number of well researched publications that will tell you otherwise, and give you a rational view as to the positive part unions have played in society. Given your far right philosophical stance on everything, and your admitted lack of knowledge on most subjects, I can see why you would make such an outlandish, uneducated and simplistic statement.

I'm not so blinked to believe trade unions have always been a positive in every instance. There have been times when unions have acted to the detriment of members and the community in general.

If you ever do some reading, not your strong point, you might learn something.

Issy, hate to disagree, but your figures are wrong.
Firstly, I have NEVER heard of a Commodore or Falcon, for that matter, for $22,888.00.
At least not here in the West.
I just checked with a Holden dealer and if we are going to compare apples with apples, the standard Commodore was a six cylinder auto, 4 door sedan, and today it retails at the base price of mid to high $30's. (approx $38,000)
Where-as the old 48'FX retailed for around $1,500 in today's money.
Also checked on the basic wage and today it is around $740.80, so back in 1948, it was around $18.00 per week.
Reference, ANU, paper by J Rob Bray.

https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/assets/documents/hilda-bibliography/other-publications/2013/Bray_Reflections_on_Evolution_of_Minimum_Wage.pdf

It may not be much but we are paying more and taking longer to save for a car today, and so it is for everything else.
You are not comparing the same criteria.
The wage you refer to is not that of a basic wage, anything else is a fabrication so is not on an equal footing to compare the two.
You mention all these factors affecting a new home, well you can't, either you compare the same specs or else don't bother to make any comparison, because they are of two different entities.
There is no doubt that it is impossible to buy a new house for around $300,000 today.
Unless you want to live on the fringes or in the sticks, forget it.
I've just finished a development of four new 3 X 2 X 1 in an inner suburb well within services and major arteries, NOT over an hour or more out of the metropolitan area.
I chose to design and build for the "first home buyer", but even at this price it seems impossible for a young couple to afford because the banks have decided to put huge onerous and impossible demands on home buyers, such as untenable and extreme deposits.
It is a totally different landscape today.
Even if the youth of today are expecting far too much compared to their parents, the cost of living today is unsustainable.

Paul, you can read all the books you want, I have lived through the things I have mentioned.
The family business employed, at peak, over 130 staff, and we had a good relationship with our staff, we paid them well but we also expected their focus and commitment to the job.
In fact, just to show you that we were one of very few, "good guys".
The unions actually used us as the reference to raise the wage of the metal workers union in a submission to arbitration.
We were not very popular with opposition companies.
We paid what WE thought was fair, not the union or some outsider.
Our staff threw the union reps out whenever they tried to get a foot in our door.
So if you want to know the truth about unions and unionism, just ask me, I warn you, it's not a pretty story.

ALTRAV,

All the things that I mentioned impact on the price of a house, they increase the price of the land.

On the Holden:
"How much would you be prepared to pay for a fully-restored 1949 Holden 48-215 (commonly but inaccurately referred to as FX)?

Bearing in mind that the original 1948 model was tagged at $1,466 how would $52,000 sound?

It might seem expensive – and undoubtedly would be for some – but according to our calculations $52,000, in wage-adjusted figures, is a lot less than the new price of the iconic Australian car in its year of introduction.

In 1948 the average Australian wage was about 70 times lower than today. A worker could expect to be paid the equivalent of about $15 per week where today the average is around $1,060 a week.

So, if that worker in 1948 pocketed every penny, it would take just a bit less than two years to raise the money for a new 48-215. An ordinary Holden Commodore today is tagged at about $38,000 which equates to about 36 weeks of wage packets."
http://www.carsales.com.au/editorial/details/from-the-classifieds-1949-holden-48-215-standard-35180/

Better check your figures again.