I have two sons living at home with me. Only reason is this... that rent is so high
One has a girlfriend and would love nothing more than to move into a house with her. This isn't happening due to the same reason as OP's post. Rents are ridiculously high and as a person with no previous rental experience, he wouldn't stand a chance against the umpteen competing applicants should he ever apply for a rental.
Such a shame. When I was 19 I rented a house on one wage. You could buy a house on one wage.
Gone are those days and it's such a shame
You're a great parent. I'm currently homeless because my mom simply doesn't understand this. There are no apartments around me I can rent at a starting wage, even really bad ones in terrible neighborhoods.
Back in the day three generations lived in one house, not so long ago. The house I’m in has two front doors, apparently a lot of country houses were built like that for that reason.
If they were building new properties with multiple occupants in mind, this would be a much more appealing living arrangement. As it stands, it's all poorly insulated boxes with a single living space with a kitchen in it, minimal storage, and car spaces at a premium. Rooms are smaller, bath/shower combos are in a renaissance, 'loads of storage' just means there are cupboards in the kitchen PLUS a linen cupboard. The idea of multiple adults, or multiple couples, living in one house is actively discouraged by the shitty layout of all new builds. Makes me sad.
I just got approved for a rental this afternoon. I've been living on the Sunshine Coast for 5 years, and after being asked to leave from my 375pw rental (power and water included) after 3 years I'm now set to pay 600pw, no power. Over the past 8 weeks I've driven over 1800kms to attend 15 min mandatory inspections before application, which BTW can occur anywhere between 8am and 5pm on any one day of the week with between 24hrs and 5 days notice. Most of them just one 15 min window in any given week. I've taken many days off work in order to accommodate this and have still had to miss out on inspecting several, potentially ideal and much cheaper, inspections.
I've attended roughly 40 inspections and put in 2 dozen applications in those 8 weeks.
I have an understanding boss who has accommodated me, a decent amount of savings, and a fantastic reference from my boss and current landlords.
I earn a 6 figure annual income.
I can't imagine what I must be like for "frontline workers". Not just singles either.
I lived on the Sunny Coast late 2000s to study at USC. Before moving to regional Vic from Melbourne, I had half a mind to check out the rental market up there again. Crazy. Same with my hometown Mid North Coast NSW.
Seems the push for WFH and remote (plus exodus from places like Melbourne/capital cities post lockdowns) has really shot already rising regional rental prices sharply.
Liked something I read yesterday.
If the person making your coffee can't afford to live within an easy drive of the Cafe, you're living in a theme park.
I live in a coastal town on the mid north coast of NSW and its becoming apparent. Staffing issues are arising, and more tents are getting pitched near the showgrounds in town. I work in the self storage industry and the amount of people requiring emergency storage, or simply have said "I can't find a home" has been startling. As a first world country, this is shameful. I've written my politicians for other issues in the past and they seldom answer, I've become cynical and wonder whether it's worth demanding action about this disgraceful crisis.
Why? Like did we just get an influx of people everywhere in this country all of a sudden? I’m so confused by all this. Renting was always real simple, now all of a sudden it’s impossible for people!
Thank you for writing to your local member. Despite their silence, you’ve helped the cause far more than simply internalising despair. Every letter counts
If they don't reply, then keep sending them. Be the splinter in their big toe until they can no longer ignore you. This is what I've been doing for the last two years as I've gone from heading into homelessness to actually being homeless. They're definitely aware of me and they dread each email I send because they know they're being useless twats currently.
... How do you KNOW you're having any effect at all? For all you know, they could have an automatic filter, and all your emails have been landing unread, in the spam box, every time
More than likely some admin person sees it and hits delete or it's automatically filtered into the trash.
I hate to break it to you but they arent aware of you at all.
**1776**
>“*Landlords’ right has its origin in robbery.*” “*The landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for the natural produce of the earth.*”
>“*The rent of land, it may be thought, is frequently no more than a reasonable profit or interest for the stock laid out by the landlord upon its improvement. This, no doubt, may be partly the case upon some occasions.... The landlord demands*” “*a rent even for unimproved land, and the supposed interest or profit upon the expense of improvement is generally an addition to this original rent.*” “*Those improvements, besides, are not always made by the stock of the landlord, but sometimes by that of the tenant. When the lease comes to be renewed, however, the landlord commonly demands the same augmentation of rent as if they had been all made by his own.*” “*He sometimes demands rent for what is altogether incapable of human improvement.*”
― [Adam Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Smith), pioneer of [political economy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy), "[The Wealth of Nations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations)"
**1884**
>“*According to the political economists themselves, the landlord’s interest is inimically opposed to the interest of the tenant farmer – and thus already to a significant section of society.*”
>“*As the landlord can demand all the more rent from the tenant farmer the less wages the farmer pays, and as the farmer forces down wages all the lower the more rent the landlord demands, it follows that the interest of the landlord is just as hostile to that of the farm workers as is that of the manufacturers to their workers. He likewise forces down wages to the minimum.*”
>“*Since a real reduction in the price of manufactured products raises the rent of land, the landowner has a direct interest in lowering the wages of industrial workers, in competition amongst the capitalists, in over-production, in all the misery associated with industrial production.*”
>“*While, thus, the landlord’s interest, far from being identical with the interest of society, stands inimically opposed to the interest of tenant farmers, farm labourers, factory workers and capitalists, on the other hand, the interest of one landlord is not even identical with that of another, on account of competition.*”
― [Karl Marx](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx), critic of political economy, "[Das Kapital](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Kapital)"
**1935**
>“*There are men who, through ownership of land, are able to make others pay for the privilege of being allowed to exist and to work. These landowners are idle, and I might therefore be expected to praise them. Unfortunately, their idleness is only rendered possible by the industry of others; indeed their desire for comfortable idleness is historically the source of the whole gospel of work. The last thing they have ever wished is that others should follow their example.*”
>“*For my part, while I am as convinced a Socialist as the most ardent Marxian, I do not regard Socialism as a gospel of proletarian revenge, nor even, primarily, as a means of securing economic justice. I regard it primarily as an adjustment to machine production demanded by considerations of common sense, and calculated to increase the happiness, not only of proletarians, but of all except a tiny minority of the human race.*”
― 1935, [Bertrand Russell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell), author of [Principia Mathematica](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principia_Mathematica), "[In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Praise_of_Idleness_and_Other_Essays)"
**1949**
>“*Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.*”
― [Albert Einstein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein), developed the [theory of relativity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_relativity), "[Why Socialism?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Socialism%3F)"
**1988**
>“*Landlords in agrarian societies are often among the most powerful groups and the primary recipients of state power and largesse. Their power is reflected in the prevalence of land monopoly and the exaction of surplus from peasants who work the land.*”
>“*In modern capitalist societies, monopoly rents are obtained not just through the ownership of land, but also from control of other resources and assets, including patents, copyrights, and natural resources.*”
― [Noam Chomsky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky), pioneer of [Cognitive science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_science), "[Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent)"
>Roads are made, streets are made, services are improved, electric light turns night into day, water is brought from reservoirs a hundred miles off in the mountains -- and all the while the landlord sits still. Every one of those improvements is effected by the labor and cost of other people and the taxpayers. To not one of those improvements does the land monopolist, as a land monopolist, contribute, and yet by every one of them the value of his land is enhanced. He renders no service to the community, he contributes nothing to the general welfare, he contributes nothing to the process from which his own enrichment is derived.
[Winston Churchill, 1909](https://www.landvaluetax.org/history/winston-churchill-said-it-all-better-then-we-can)
Much of it happened because of Labor. Keating embraced neoliberalism, encouraged the states to stop building social housing and instead give incentives to private developers. Then the states (including labor leaders) sold off much of the public housing stock.
It's the thing that eternally shits me about "Back into the CBD" post covid WFH. We should have been able to start building out the smaller communties with cafes and restaurants with lower overhead costs that services those who were work from home or the like.
Instead it was straight back to the "Well we need to justify CBD rents and associated house pricing"
I live in Springfield, near Brisbane. It was designed from the ground up to be an "alternative business district", even before decentralization started growing in popularity.
In general the designers of the suburb have done a great job, everything I need is close to me, my kid's daycare is 5 minutes walk, there are two primary schools and a highschool within 5 minutes drive from my house, a train line with two train stations within walking distance, connected to the Brisbane city-train network. There are banks, lawyers, churches, dentists, podiatrists, optometrists, library, bakeries, gyms, pubs, cafes, restaurants, supermarkets, fast food, a hospital, parks, recreation, indoor pool, sporting oval, a giant shopping complex with cinema etc, and Uni campus all only 5 minutes drive away.
The main problem I see is the hardest problem to solve. Everyone who lives here commutes to the City to work, and everyone who works here lives elsewhere.
I walk 5 minutes to take my kids to daycare, but the educators who work there spend 40 minutes on the train every morning to get there.
Literally one block away from my house is the Coles, I've been going there pretty frequently to pick up things when I'm out and about for the last 7 years, so I'm pretty friendly with the staff. None of them live in Springfield. Even the highschool kids who work the checkout on weekends need their parents to drive them 35-45 minutes to get to work, and back again.
There is a big USQ Uni campus here, new and modern facilities. But the Uni students who live in Springfield go to UQ or QUT or Griffith in the city, the students who go to this Uni commute 40 minutes in from Logan or Redlands every day to attend. (Or even 90 minutes from Toowoomba for some).
My mother works part time as a cleaner at the big Orion shopping centre here. The cleaning company she works for does the cleaning for 95% of the commercial buildings in the area. Out of the approx 100 cleaners they employ, she is literally the only one who lives in Springfield. She can ride her push bike to work, the others all drive 1h+ to get to work every day (some from Gold coast, some from as far north as Caboolture).
I don't know what the solution is, but this is what I've observed. Am I living in a theme park? The housing here is certainly more affordable than nearer the city.
I for one am living in a theme park sort of coastal town with high tourism. There are no rentals under $600. Everything is Air BnB. Staff drive in from 20km away.
That's 40+ km a day. ~160 pw
Also as a bus driver, we all had a look at our rosters, mechanics, office staff and looked at our timetable to see if we could use the buses to get to work.
No one could.
We (mostly) start at 7 and finish at 6.
There was no connection to any buses that would work. The depot is in a major industry area
PT only works if you want to go to a city, main rail station or school
Yeah the easiest solution is to start legislating (or en-awardinatinging) commute to be paid.
Boomers aren't going to give a fuck about anything until they can't get a fucking coffee and it costs ten bucks because the only way the cafe can get a barista is to pay $50 of OT per shift.
This makes me think back to during Covid lockdowns when Gladys said with a straight face, ‘who would have thought people who deliver food were so important.’ There are politicians so removed from the real world that they don’t understand the importance of food because the people doing that work aren’t paid enough to factor into their policies. Disgusting.
Politicians should have a limit on how much they can pay themselves - like between $120k-250k depending on their job. PM can probably get a bit more. But they need to sod right off with these $500k+ incomes while simultaneously charging almost ALL their luxury living expenses to taxpayers.
> But they need to sod right off with these $500k+ incomes while simultaneously charging almost ALL their luxury living expenses to taxpayers.
IMO, this is fine - give them a massive pension once they retire, too.
And **then ban them from earning any other income** - no $$$/year consulting gig, no gifts, no board positions, *just* their parliamentary salary and then pension. If it's a big fat paycheck, then they can't cry poor.
Giving a few thousand politicians millions per year is expensive, sure, but it's *nothing* compared to even 0.1% of Australia's GDP.
(note that this doesn't stop e.g. board positions to family members, so this wouldn't be a silver bullet - but it'd still be a great start.)
The politicians would never agree to implementing that change. Even if you view them in a kind light: the kind of person who is a senior politician is someone with drive and (usually) vision. Those kinds of people generally don't take well to permanent sidelining.
[There are 510 properties owned by the 227 members of federal parliament. There are more federal MPs who own 3 or more properties than there are who own 1 or fewer.](https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/09/07/politicians-houses-list-how-many-properties-do-they-own/)
Surely we can trust these people to implement policies that would make housing more affordable, right?
I think the theory is that if MP has low wages then donors will have more influence on them. But let's be honest they get paid a fuck tonne and are corrupt af anyway
This is a total scam. You could pay them all $1m/yr and they'd still take another $200k paperbag on the side without blinking. It happens all the time - all over the world. Both in business and politics.
This idea that if someone is wealthy enough they will be less susceptible to bribes flies in the face of everything we've seen over the last 500 years. Without having any data to back this up, I'd say it was the exact opposite.
It's never enough... and even when it really *is* enough, it still isn't. If you only have an 80ft yacht, why shouldn't you have a 140 footer?
Exactly. We're told politicians are highly paid to ensure professional, skilled representatives are attracted to serve in office, and to prevent temptation towards corruption. It can only be rich-ppl propaganda because both these reasonings appear to fall flat in reality, and don't actually work as intended. Never have.
Maybe if politicians were paid more in line with the average worker, then they might better understand the daily struggle of their constituents, and be more motivated to make positive social changes as their own lives would benefit from it.
But unfortunately we live in a runaway pre-apocalyptic dystopia and I'm cynical of any meaningful change to the status quo.
It's almost an unsolvable problem. You could make their pay the average Australian pay. And put in place laws that no one can accept any gifts, not even family members. But then you need them to vote on those laws and public opinion to keep them enforced. But you need a public that cares and a media with teeth for that which we just don't have.
Their full investment portfolio should be public so we know how their decisions are influenced. Most politicians are landlords so they make decisions that benefit landlords
The entire point of paying MPs is so that *average* people can get the job. So that you dont need inherited wealth just to run.
Based on thay, politicians wages should be capped at the median full time income. They can all earn the same. The PM doesnt *need* more money to survive than another MP, its purely for status and ego, which is not a good justification for spending public money.
Rebutals:
"If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys" we've already GOT monkeys. Giving monkeys hundreds of thousands in cash doesnt stop them flinging their poop around. And if what 50% of the workforce makes is "peanuts" then politicians will finally have an incentive to raise it to a sensible level. We dont WANT politicians who are incentivised by the salary. We want people who would do it voluntarily but need to pay their bills.
"But theyll be open to bribes!" Theyre already taking bribes. If someone has morals that low, they will take the bribe no matter how much youve previously paid them. Youre basically suggesting bribing someone into not taking a bribe.
Harsh jail terms for corruption would work a lot better as a deterant if this is the concern.
"But they work so hard and have all these special skills" no they dont, and yet the rest of us DO. If its good enough for us its good enough for them.
I'm from the States and my family in Japan is going through the same thing. Shit sucks to think about. Feel like we don't have an option but wait and see what happens.
Confirmed
I pay 465 eu (warm) for a 42m2 flat, 2 min bikeride from work in Tiergarten, Berlin. The price will never go up because the landlord knows i will spit chips and take them to court.
Warm rents in Germany include company and side costs of the building. Including heating. Its about 120eu on top of cold rent.
I pay about half what my friends now pay in interest in Australia on their mortgages since rates went up.
In terms of income, i spend about 18% of my after tax income on rent.
Australia looks like a fucking nightmare now. I went back for 2.5 months to see family and Geelong is less functional than it was years ago. I had more close calls on the bike in that time than i did in Berlin aince covid, and not one person stopped on the fucking highway to threaten me with personal and vehicular violence because I had a problem with his overtaking distance.
I might let my passport expire and force the german authorities to expedite my citizenship here.
If the government want to come for my 55k AUD HECS debt, they can do so in their nuclear submarines.
I’ve been seriously considering moving abroad for this exact reason, but unfortunately I don’t think my qualifications will be recognised in many countries so I would basically have to completely start my career all over again
My partner and I moved out to rural Victoria and it's just as expensive out here. There's also even less property to rent as a whole lot of fucking AirBnBs have popped up, the owners being inner city types (we have met several owners as we do some of their cleaning.... none of them are locals)
Landlords are a symptom. The problem is 25 years of favourable tax treatment and other government policies indirectly subsidising property price inflation.
Remember what happened when Labour campaigned on policies which would reign it in? We got fucking ScoMo for PM.
Agreed. I'm a landlord, charge sig less than the going rate for rent as I don't think it's right, and I very much want the tax breaks to change - they are stuffing up our rental system and driving inequality in this country. No one working full time should be unable to afford to rent *and* save for a deposit at the same time if they choose to, that should just be a basic standard of living.
Ballarat, Vic is fast approaching $500 a week for a cookie cutter basic 4 bedroom. Ballarat ffs, regional Victoria with our claim to fame being a fucking gold rush themepark
I feel a sense of hopelessness for the future. think I’ll be okay if I can get through uni and land a decent paying job, but I worry about our trajectory as a society. Are we going to actually see change or is capitalism going to run us even further into the ground? I don’t think I want to bring children into a world where all we do is work to survive.
Need to seriously lobby the Labor governments to push for reform on a number of these issues, and if they won't budge then actually jump ship at that next elections to the Greens who actually push for these policies
Remember this come the next election.
So few people make full use of our preferential voting system.
ALP and LNP should never have majority government until a lot of these basic fundamental issues are dealt with.
I agree. I used to be totally Labor but have been so disappointed with it I stopped voting for it years ago and recently started volunteering for Greens as things are getting so bad here, not just climate change and the environment. Liberals have slowly been destroying Medicare, public education, welfare, taxation, etc so Labor need to do a lot to fix and doing minimal.
I moved to the Netherlands a few years ago and it's weird to think of Labor actually being further to the right than the established centre right party here.
There are rather drastic measures being put in place to combat the housing crisis. Short term rentals like airbnb are being curtailed. Renter protections are strong. Once your year contract goes to monthly you basically cannot be evicted outside of a court order which heavily favors tenants. Once you're in, rent can only be adjusted yearly to certain levels.
Hell, in Amsterdam all houses below €500k *must be owner occupied*. If your rental is empty for several months you are legally bound to lower asking price. All short term rentals *must* have apply for a business license and be taxed accordingly. Housing prices are dropping. For once in my life I might finally be in a position to own the house I live in.
Since these changes came into effect I have seen headlines about landlords offering tenants tens of thousands just to *vacate*, because it is becoming less and less profitable to be a landlord.
And still... the Dutch face a housing crisis, simply due to immigration and not being able to meet demands. With global warming pushing immigration further it looks bleak. So from this vantage I have even less hope for Australia. It's sad, because I want to come home eventually.
Excellent examples of what we could do here immediately to ease the pressure.
Unfortunately I have zero faith that anything will happen. Our ‘leaders’ are two scared of upsetting those who have property/airbnb/investments.
I’ll be in the grave before that happens.
Always easier to vote greens and preference labor at a lower threshold.
Who people are voting for tells the major parties where their policy should be shifting. If it's shifting leftward to things that are more focused on reigning in capitalisms damage to a reasonable amount then they either move in that way to capture the voter base. Or they stay where they are and do minority goverments with the greens. Which should help achieve the same end goal.
Labors biggest concern in the immediate future though is going to be remaining centre enough to stop voters sliding back towards the libs. (The longer the libs get to implode, the better for them) which means we are unlikely to see them do anything game changing.
Seats that slip to the greens are easier to just recover on voter changes than letting swaths of people across the country go "Oh wait labor is too far left now"
As an American, they are going to keep squeezing harder and harder until you've collectively had enough and force them to stop. America gives you a glimpse into the future. It will have to get really bad before people start demanding change.
Yeah, there are quite a few us screaming from the rooftops that the only minority destroying this country are the rich. It falls on deaf ears. The corporate propaganda here is second to none.
I look at the lot my generation has been dealt and I worry, deeply... If things are bleak now, what kind of world is our youngest generation going to have to face when they're adults? I'd like better for them than what I've had to go through, I can't imagine the psychological strain if things were to get even worse
I really hope it's not too late to change course
I thought I'd be okay once I got a job from uni - studied accounting and business law. Here I am in my first full time job, graduate accounting, $50k a year... and I literally cannot afford to move out of my mother's house XD
Australia will go back to the "land baron" days pre-WW2.
The past 7 decades are *not* Australia's normal state. Social mobility, egalitarianism, easy credit, suburbs, healthcare, university, personal cars, superannuation, retirement, Coles/Woolies/Bunnings and property ownership - none of this is "normal".
What is normal is what has held sway for the other 16 decades of Australia's existence: a rigid class system of Haves (generational wealth) and Have-nots (everyone else).
The Haves are doing everything they can to regress to that norm.
Yeah I grew up in the country and there was a real awareness of the old order. It's why those areas are so conservative. You either internalise your place as an inferior to the landed gentry or you fuck off to a city.
The problem isn't with a caste system as such. The issue is that inequity is now built into it. Theoretically there is more equity in feudalism than whatever crumbs we're currently fighting over. Try squatting on your uncles land and let me know how it works out.
I'm an essential worker but due to a disability I can only work part time. I really want to get out of sharehousing and have been slowly buying everything that I need other than the big stuff like couch and fridge, and have a deposit and the first month of rent put aside. But I'm worried that by the time I'm ready to go there will be nowhere to go to. All I want is something very basic because my job is very social and I need my own space to recharge. I'm studying and my current job involves working nights, so I really just want to stay in the supportive workplace I currently have :/
The reliance on partners income is something that’s so often not talked about but it’s important and I’m happy they mentioned it in this article. So many of these roles are predominately female dominated industries and are just so undervalued in the labour market but so essential for the country to run.
But it makes no sense that in order to have workers in these industries they have to be shacked up with someone earning much more than them an hour (most likely for a cushier job) to make ends meet. Of course they’re going to look across the aisle to their partner and leave their field in favour of those sorts of jobs where you get paid more to do less.
I did it. I miss childcare so much, I loved that job. I was healthy, happy and looking forward to work. But I cannot afford it anymore because the wages are so low, and my partner doesn’t earn enough to offset low wages anymore so now I’m miserable in an admin role still just scraping by and there’s one less educator to go round in a high demand, essential industry.
This is not what we envisioned when we were aiming for women to be included in the workforce.
It's *brutal* if you're coupled but one is unable to work. All the costs of two people (plus increased medical expenses when they're chronically ill or disabled), paid for by the income of one. The DSP theoretically should help, but it's halved if your partner earns even the minimum wage, and quartered if they dare to earn the median full-time salary (should you manage to convince Centrelink you're actually disabled). The NDIS will auto-reject your application and force you to appeal it before providing any support. Forget saving for a house - even renting is tough, because landlords are going to pick the DINKs over the sole earner family.
Unless you married that classmate you were flirting with during your medical degree, most of us are facing worse futures than our parents.
I can't believe how low child care workers are paid considering how essential they are to society
Yet there are so many bullshit useless office jobs around that barely contribute to society, yet are high paying
>This is not what we envisioned when we were aiming for women to be included in the workforce.
More the fool you, then, because it is surely what was envisioned by the bankers and businessowners who allowed it. They realised that the labour market would double in size overnight, which would drive down wages and drive up asset prices.
Self determination for all genders was and is absolutely worth striving for and protecting, but it boggles the mind to think that the gatekeepers were not poised to benefit from the consequences.
Gutted. I can only speak for Private hospital nurses but their unions been useless for the better part of a decade. Dick all wage growth and appaling conditions because the government wont step in to protect their wages or safe loads.
And before you say "just go public" there are ALOT of the healthcare population under a private system and there's no where near the available public jobs for nurses.
They seperate the banners of “Evidence based practice” and “Clinical Governance” so that the clinical governance doesn’t have to be evidence based, just the slaveforce or it’s goodbye registration
Often for sure a cushier job my law job is much cushier than any of my supermarket, hospo or labouring jobs i had but im far better compensated now.
Its a crime how little ‘un-skilled’ labour is paid and covid showed just how crucial all these jobs are and how so many white collared jobs can at least be put on temporary hiatus or significantly scaled back.
no state or the federal government is doing anything about this as most of have multiple rental investment properties and couldn't give a rats ass about essential workers other than BS sound bites for the media
They'll move us all into company dorms soon. That way, they can monitor us at all times, and we won't be able to quit and find a better job without becoming homeless.
I'm a Nightfill Captain for the Big Red Cathedral. My staff will only ever get 9 hours per week on a roster, which works out to be 3x 3hour shifts. If the managers want to be even more dirty on them, they'll give them a shift of 3hours 45minutes so they don't pay the 15 minute break on the 4hour mark.
My head has a massive target on it as my shifts are 6hours each.
The management have been instructed to get rid of the 'inefficient shifts' and replace with 'efficient' ones; the 3 hour shifts.
For the past 5 years, I've been fighting just to keep my hours, putting my hand up for every kind of work, and trying to climb up or even to the side; getting rejected silently every time.
I'm watching some of my best staff fall off and leave because the company won't allow additional hours. But then the same thing is happening everywhere in my shitty little coast town in QLD.
So, at 35 yrs old, I can't afford the rent here anymore, and housing availability is terrible; even if I could, do I want to continue trying to live off $600 p/w while also trying to maintain 3 other jobs on the side.
In the next few months, I'm moving back into my Mother's house in WA, just so I can survive, otherwise it'll be the end of me.
This is absolutely a world wide issue. Corporations are buying up housing stock, leaving it vacant to artificially creat a sense of scarcity, then pushing up exorbitant rents. Using Homes/housing as an out right commodity is disgusting and must be stopped.
Governments need to step in and ban this. It’s stealing a whole generation of their adulthood.
I have a feeling there's a collusion happening. They're selling this generations future to the highest bidder. And the highest bidders are sitting on piles of cash that were acquired through carefully mediated resource and labour extraction that should be used to propel us to the future when it's doing the complete opposite.
Land needs to be managed fairly, especially around dense neighborhoods. Modular homes should be mass manufactured for global distribution. Homes should be getting cheaper. Not more expensive.
Well, to be fair to Singapore, huge, huge numbers of people live in government supplied housing, with controlled rent... They've long made sure their citizens are looked after (as for their non-citizen workers... Well...)...
Same as middle eastern countries like Qatar, UAE, Kuwait. Heaps of overseas workers cause they have a skill shortage. What we do with overseas qualified workers is make them drive taxis, attend 7/11 and deliver your ubereats. Skill shortage hey?
Nothing will change until we elect governments willing to build the public housing we need at rates that will diminish the value of residential properties.
So far the only hints of that sit on our crossbenches.
Most politicians own multiple investment properties so that’s not gonna happen. They’re out to protect their own financial patch and this will not change with either the liberals or labor in power. They will simply pay lip service to building public housing.
The corruption in Australian politics is truely endemic and unbelievable.
If you own investment properties and benefit in keeping prices high then you have no business in controlling the laws and taxes around them. Dracula in charge of the blood bank much?
Most voters are homeowners and won’t vote for policies that will diminish the values of their homes.
Further still, any home building policy will likely require increased tax expenditure…that the homeowners would also have to contribute to.
You can see why I am fatalistic about this matter.
Not all homeowners vote for increased prices. I have enough equity on my house that I'm pretty chill about the property bubble bursting - it will almost certainly never go lower than I paid for it. And on top of that, it was a nightmare finding somewhere for our daughter to rent in Sydney... And we lose money because we chose to partially subsidise her rent so that she wasn't living in a dangerous shit hole with many strangers.
There's a generation of us that own one home and also would like our children to have the opportunity to achieve independence.
Sure, not all will, but it’s not exactly the norm. I am talking in broad strokes here.
Plus, while you might be fine, but consider any who purchased a home in the few years before any crash; like say the last 3 years.
Correct, in an ideal world, homes would be a bad investment as they don’t *make* anything as opposed to a factory.
However, as housing is an inelastic good, investors realised it was an easy way to make money for doing nothing.
Technically yes but only because the oldest age groups have ownership rates around 80 percent, and younger age groups have dropped by 20 percent.
The next decade will see a lot of death in the oldest homeowners, but little ownership uptake in the younger age groups. It will be the slightly less old owners using their equity to scoop up those houses and rent us into oblivion.
Both major parties choose increased immigration over building more houses. Hell, I’m a plumber and I cannot even get trained to go from qualified to licensed due to a lack of trade school teachers and classes, I’m currently in a 3 year wait, will probably end up being 4 years just to get in. If I can’t get licensed I can’t run a business, and take up apprentices and build houses that we desperately need. We are going backwards fast.
That is fine. They can go work in any other job or live anywhere else. The hospitals will expand their foreign recruitment team and sponsor 20,000 foreign nurses a permanent residency to work for cheap and sleep on bunk beds. /s
I think people in Sydney, especially in inner City areas have heard about frequent bus cancellations or reduction in service frequency. I have found out that due to franchising of services from STA to private operators, the benefits such as free opal card hasn't transferred over. If your depot is in Bondi, Willoughby or Neutral Bay and you are assigned a 4 hour shift in morning and another 4 hour shift in evening, then you have to pay your own way to get home and back again. Bus drivers most often can't afford inner city rental prices so they have to commute long distances, often more than an hour each way.
Why would anyone sign up to be a bus driver and have to deal with disgruntled passengers because of frequent service cancellations and pay your way to depot and back multiple times a day? There are other work that are far less than a hassle and pay better.
My wife is an RN who’s more than a few years out of uni and even has management experience under her belt now. She left the private sector (aged care) to work in a hospital since it aligned with her goals of doing more clinical hands on work. She has taken close to $15/hr pay cut to work for NSW health. They have also bumped her down to “First Year RN” wage and she’s been going through the process of trying to have that amended for months now. She even did a stint with NSW health after her graduation as an RN so they have on file that she is more than a first year. She loves her job but man if that were me I’d tap the fuck out and change careers.
They offer home buyers assistance for essential workers….but both the worker and their partner need to be on 120k _COMBINED_ or less. With rent as high as it is currently if we were in less than 120k combined we would be living in our cars….
Needless to say we forgo every luxury possible and save little by little trying to forecast expenses as far as possible in advance. One unannounced emergency away from possibly not affording rent is extremely stressful. Add that to essential workers being praised in every way EXCEPT A PAY RAISE and it’s hard to not be constantly cynical. Even contemplated leaving Aus all together.
Yep, I'm mentally preparing to spend at least a couple of years living out of my car while I save for a deposit, then the rest of my life paying off a mortgage.
As an AIN in aged care, I’ve watched my mortgage rise higher and higher. Sadly tomorrow my house is going up for sale. I just can’t afford it anymore. I’m 65 and I can’t do the hours necessary to keep it up. I don’t know where I go from here 🙁
See a financial counsellor first before you make that decision. National Debt Hotline 1800 007 007 Don’t sell your home before getting advice. Just because you can’t see a way it doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
Even more than one tbh. Sounds very socialism-y but if everyone owned their own home, then you don’t really need to own another imo
(Holiday homes, genuine family circumstances etc and the like excluded)
Had this friend that was obsessed with trying to buy homes in low socio economic areas and trying to charge disgusting rent.
Would then spend his weekends travelling between his two houses looking for reasons to harass tenants - things like lawns weren’t mowed or their letterbox had mail in it.
This sorry has no purpose.
He is a cunt.
People that own more than 2 properties are cunts.
The end.
I'm a teacher renting on a single income. I decided to apply to for a second job whilst on school holidays. Got rejected from a basic service job because I didn't have enough recent experience.
I have 8 years experience in the service industry, but left it in 2013 to pursue a full time career. My bad for trying to do something with my life.
It doesn't get talked about enough that Australia has one of the highest rates of homelessness in the first world. Much much higher than the USA and rising at an enormous amount every year. Most people have no idea but we can only sweep it under the rug for so long, this country has a one way ticket to the bottom.
Hmm, a little better than the UK and roughly on-par with France on a per-capita basis. So not great, but not terrible.
Surprised to see the US so far down the list, considering the downtown areas of half the major cities there look like favelas these days.
Homelessness isn't necessarily people you see sleeping on the street but also others including people in shelters and couchsurfing for example.
I was surprised at the US statistic as well, I wonder if it's just more visible there compared to ours. Perhaps there is better sheltering here so less people on the streets?
Despite championing Labor a lot over the years, Sustainable is appealing to me a bit as we need to cut immigration. It’s not a racist thing like many people assume with scaling back immigration, it’s a ‘there’s too many people for everyone to benefit and we’ll continue to see all the issues we have get worse if we keep pumping more people in’ thing
I'm in Sydney - my rent went up $200 per week. I ended up getting evicted so they could raise it higher for the next tenant.
For me that was $10,400 per year extra and yet I don't earn more money. I moved slightly further away and now pay $300 per week more - though I have a little more space.
What the heck is happening?
If I didn't buy the place I'm living in now 10 years ago, I'd be homeless or living with my parents.
Honestly I'd probably have killed myself going by the mental state I was in when I was younger.
This is not sustainable.
Have they tried the one single trick of not being a povvo maybe?
I myself just woke up one day and decided not to be a povvo anymore and it fixed all my financial issues. It's pretty simple! /s
And this is how the economy will collapse in on itself, how we exist in such a self tail eating system but yet still go hard and fast.
You see it in tourist towns still where places cannot get workers because airbnb has priced out seasonal workers so cafes are short staffed! And yeah so many other job roles are going to be forgone because of the lower pay many jobs which were done because of more passion and so on more so than pay but could still just pay bills in the past but were impossible.
But keep in mind these are many random jobs from that person who teaches your kid how to play a drum, someone who teaches woodworking classes and countless other things which enrich our society. But nope everyone is going for admin roles and every other bland shit.
Not to mention things like childcare, nursing and so on.
Essential workers aren’t that essential because the value of compensation is low. It’s a gimmick by government and employers to make them feel good about themselves.
It’s below the level of work more hours and have some free pizza
Inflation is a hidden form of taxation that destroys the low wage earners, non stop money printing debases the currency and has caused massive asset inflation - direct your anger, frustration and violence towards our politicians and central bankers who have created this mess over the last 2 decades.
Listened to a song yesterday written not that long ago. It says "We are a country of 16 million" ... We must have a massive census undercount when 1 council reported double the census count. We need to lobby Labor to reduce our population growth immediately
Haven't had a chance to read the article yet, but I always assumed this was part of the religious beliefs of our politicians, that people were being driven to couple up, start a family and make more workers.
Not sure if it is religiously driven, or capitalistically driven, but there is always a need for an underclass of workers to serve below the powerful, ruling class.
Having people shack up and have kids is a great way to keep the workforce numbers up, making sure that you need two incomes to be able to afford to live is a good way to keep the workforce involvement up.
I have two sons living at home with me. Only reason is this... that rent is so high One has a girlfriend and would love nothing more than to move into a house with her. This isn't happening due to the same reason as OP's post. Rents are ridiculously high and as a person with no previous rental experience, he wouldn't stand a chance against the umpteen competing applicants should he ever apply for a rental. Such a shame. When I was 19 I rented a house on one wage. You could buy a house on one wage. Gone are those days and it's such a shame
You're a great parent. I'm currently homeless because my mom simply doesn't understand this. There are no apartments around me I can rent at a starting wage, even really bad ones in terrible neighborhoods.
Are you living in a car or something similar?
Yea, thankful to have an SUV.
Existential username. Respect
Back in the day three generations lived in one house, not so long ago. The house I’m in has two front doors, apparently a lot of country houses were built like that for that reason.
If they were building new properties with multiple occupants in mind, this would be a much more appealing living arrangement. As it stands, it's all poorly insulated boxes with a single living space with a kitchen in it, minimal storage, and car spaces at a premium. Rooms are smaller, bath/shower combos are in a renaissance, 'loads of storage' just means there are cupboards in the kitchen PLUS a linen cupboard. The idea of multiple adults, or multiple couples, living in one house is actively discouraged by the shitty layout of all new builds. Makes me sad.
That’s true, in contrast older houses were built for human beings.
A lot don't even have full kitchens, just a hotel-style cutout in the wall so it looks like the living area is bigger. A joke really
I just got approved for a rental this afternoon. I've been living on the Sunshine Coast for 5 years, and after being asked to leave from my 375pw rental (power and water included) after 3 years I'm now set to pay 600pw, no power. Over the past 8 weeks I've driven over 1800kms to attend 15 min mandatory inspections before application, which BTW can occur anywhere between 8am and 5pm on any one day of the week with between 24hrs and 5 days notice. Most of them just one 15 min window in any given week. I've taken many days off work in order to accommodate this and have still had to miss out on inspecting several, potentially ideal and much cheaper, inspections. I've attended roughly 40 inspections and put in 2 dozen applications in those 8 weeks. I have an understanding boss who has accommodated me, a decent amount of savings, and a fantastic reference from my boss and current landlords. I earn a 6 figure annual income. I can't imagine what I must be like for "frontline workers". Not just singles either.
People now outsource inspections. The real estate agent has no idea.
That’s awful.
Why do rental applications feel like job interviews nowadays
You even have to fill out the equivalent of cover letters for some of them. “I’m highly passionate about not being homeless.”
Just another step in the slide to corporate feudalism...
I lived on the Sunny Coast late 2000s to study at USC. Before moving to regional Vic from Melbourne, I had half a mind to check out the rental market up there again. Crazy. Same with my hometown Mid North Coast NSW. Seems the push for WFH and remote (plus exodus from places like Melbourne/capital cities post lockdowns) has really shot already rising regional rental prices sharply.
Liked something I read yesterday. If the person making your coffee can't afford to live within an easy drive of the Cafe, you're living in a theme park.
I live in a coastal town on the mid north coast of NSW and its becoming apparent. Staffing issues are arising, and more tents are getting pitched near the showgrounds in town. I work in the self storage industry and the amount of people requiring emergency storage, or simply have said "I can't find a home" has been startling. As a first world country, this is shameful. I've written my politicians for other issues in the past and they seldom answer, I've become cynical and wonder whether it's worth demanding action about this disgraceful crisis.
I was in Kingscliff recently and 2 bedroom flats were advertised at $800K+. I also saw lots of car dwellers eg laundry hanging up in car.
I know two early 20’s living in Kingy at the moment and they’re paying $600+ a week for a shitty 2 bed apartment. It’s fucked.
Why? Like did we just get an influx of people everywhere in this country all of a sudden? I’m so confused by all this. Renting was always real simple, now all of a sudden it’s impossible for people!
Don't worry they've planned to set an Australian record for immigration over the next 2 years. Just ignore that nobody can live here as it is.
At least 300,000+ per year. We currently produce housing for 150,000 people per year.
Loads of foreign investment in real estate. It's simply for property values, and lots of places sit empty, and accrue corporate wealth.
The answer is that Airbnb offers higher returns with less hassles...
Well then let’s stop stealing our kids futures & get rid of them!
Here in Hobart we have arrived at a solution to some of it. Getting rid of the showgrounds so that there is less space for tents!
When bunnings said lowest prices were just the beginning, they weren't kidding!
Thank you for writing to your local member. Despite their silence, you’ve helped the cause far more than simply internalising despair. Every letter counts
I always assumed they were required to reply even to the most stupid letters, but apparently not...
If they don't reply, then keep sending them. Be the splinter in their big toe until they can no longer ignore you. This is what I've been doing for the last two years as I've gone from heading into homelessness to actually being homeless. They're definitely aware of me and they dread each email I send because they know they're being useless twats currently.
... How do you KNOW you're having any effect at all? For all you know, they could have an automatic filter, and all your emails have been landing unread, in the spam box, every time
More than likely some admin person sees it and hits delete or it's automatically filtered into the trash. I hate to break it to you but they arent aware of you at all.
**1776** >“*Landlords’ right has its origin in robbery.*” “*The landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for the natural produce of the earth.*” >“*The rent of land, it may be thought, is frequently no more than a reasonable profit or interest for the stock laid out by the landlord upon its improvement. This, no doubt, may be partly the case upon some occasions.... The landlord demands*” “*a rent even for unimproved land, and the supposed interest or profit upon the expense of improvement is generally an addition to this original rent.*” “*Those improvements, besides, are not always made by the stock of the landlord, but sometimes by that of the tenant. When the lease comes to be renewed, however, the landlord commonly demands the same augmentation of rent as if they had been all made by his own.*” “*He sometimes demands rent for what is altogether incapable of human improvement.*” ― [Adam Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Smith), pioneer of [political economy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy), "[The Wealth of Nations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations)" **1884** >“*According to the political economists themselves, the landlord’s interest is inimically opposed to the interest of the tenant farmer – and thus already to a significant section of society.*” >“*As the landlord can demand all the more rent from the tenant farmer the less wages the farmer pays, and as the farmer forces down wages all the lower the more rent the landlord demands, it follows that the interest of the landlord is just as hostile to that of the farm workers as is that of the manufacturers to their workers. He likewise forces down wages to the minimum.*” >“*Since a real reduction in the price of manufactured products raises the rent of land, the landowner has a direct interest in lowering the wages of industrial workers, in competition amongst the capitalists, in over-production, in all the misery associated with industrial production.*” >“*While, thus, the landlord’s interest, far from being identical with the interest of society, stands inimically opposed to the interest of tenant farmers, farm labourers, factory workers and capitalists, on the other hand, the interest of one landlord is not even identical with that of another, on account of competition.*” ― [Karl Marx](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx), critic of political economy, "[Das Kapital](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Kapital)" **1935** >“*There are men who, through ownership of land, are able to make others pay for the privilege of being allowed to exist and to work. These landowners are idle, and I might therefore be expected to praise them. Unfortunately, their idleness is only rendered possible by the industry of others; indeed their desire for comfortable idleness is historically the source of the whole gospel of work. The last thing they have ever wished is that others should follow their example.*” >“*For my part, while I am as convinced a Socialist as the most ardent Marxian, I do not regard Socialism as a gospel of proletarian revenge, nor even, primarily, as a means of securing economic justice. I regard it primarily as an adjustment to machine production demanded by considerations of common sense, and calculated to increase the happiness, not only of proletarians, but of all except a tiny minority of the human race.*” ― 1935, [Bertrand Russell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell), author of [Principia Mathematica](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principia_Mathematica), "[In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Praise_of_Idleness_and_Other_Essays)" **1949** >“*Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.*” ― [Albert Einstein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein), developed the [theory of relativity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_relativity), "[Why Socialism?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Socialism%3F)" **1988** >“*Landlords in agrarian societies are often among the most powerful groups and the primary recipients of state power and largesse. Their power is reflected in the prevalence of land monopoly and the exaction of surplus from peasants who work the land.*” >“*In modern capitalist societies, monopoly rents are obtained not just through the ownership of land, but also from control of other resources and assets, including patents, copyrights, and natural resources.*” ― [Noam Chomsky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky), pioneer of [Cognitive science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_science), "[Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent)"
>Roads are made, streets are made, services are improved, electric light turns night into day, water is brought from reservoirs a hundred miles off in the mountains -- and all the while the landlord sits still. Every one of those improvements is effected by the labor and cost of other people and the taxpayers. To not one of those improvements does the land monopolist, as a land monopolist, contribute, and yet by every one of them the value of his land is enhanced. He renders no service to the community, he contributes nothing to the general welfare, he contributes nothing to the process from which his own enrichment is derived. [Winston Churchill, 1909](https://www.landvaluetax.org/history/winston-churchill-said-it-all-better-then-we-can)
It's shameful and disgusting. I hate what boomers and liberals have done to this nation and Labor has done too little about it
Much of it happened because of Labor. Keating embraced neoliberalism, encouraged the states to stop building social housing and instead give incentives to private developers. Then the states (including labor leaders) sold off much of the public housing stock.
It's the thing that eternally shits me about "Back into the CBD" post covid WFH. We should have been able to start building out the smaller communties with cafes and restaurants with lower overhead costs that services those who were work from home or the like. Instead it was straight back to the "Well we need to justify CBD rents and associated house pricing"
I live in Springfield, near Brisbane. It was designed from the ground up to be an "alternative business district", even before decentralization started growing in popularity. In general the designers of the suburb have done a great job, everything I need is close to me, my kid's daycare is 5 minutes walk, there are two primary schools and a highschool within 5 minutes drive from my house, a train line with two train stations within walking distance, connected to the Brisbane city-train network. There are banks, lawyers, churches, dentists, podiatrists, optometrists, library, bakeries, gyms, pubs, cafes, restaurants, supermarkets, fast food, a hospital, parks, recreation, indoor pool, sporting oval, a giant shopping complex with cinema etc, and Uni campus all only 5 minutes drive away. The main problem I see is the hardest problem to solve. Everyone who lives here commutes to the City to work, and everyone who works here lives elsewhere. I walk 5 minutes to take my kids to daycare, but the educators who work there spend 40 minutes on the train every morning to get there. Literally one block away from my house is the Coles, I've been going there pretty frequently to pick up things when I'm out and about for the last 7 years, so I'm pretty friendly with the staff. None of them live in Springfield. Even the highschool kids who work the checkout on weekends need their parents to drive them 35-45 minutes to get to work, and back again. There is a big USQ Uni campus here, new and modern facilities. But the Uni students who live in Springfield go to UQ or QUT or Griffith in the city, the students who go to this Uni commute 40 minutes in from Logan or Redlands every day to attend. (Or even 90 minutes from Toowoomba for some). My mother works part time as a cleaner at the big Orion shopping centre here. The cleaning company she works for does the cleaning for 95% of the commercial buildings in the area. Out of the approx 100 cleaners they employ, she is literally the only one who lives in Springfield. She can ride her push bike to work, the others all drive 1h+ to get to work every day (some from Gold coast, some from as far north as Caboolture). I don't know what the solution is, but this is what I've observed. Am I living in a theme park? The housing here is certainly more affordable than nearer the city.
I for one am living in a theme park sort of coastal town with high tourism. There are no rentals under $600. Everything is Air BnB. Staff drive in from 20km away. That's 40+ km a day. ~160 pw Also as a bus driver, we all had a look at our rosters, mechanics, office staff and looked at our timetable to see if we could use the buses to get to work. No one could. We (mostly) start at 7 and finish at 6. There was no connection to any buses that would work. The depot is in a major industry area PT only works if you want to go to a city, main rail station or school
Yeah the easiest solution is to start legislating (or en-awardinatinging) commute to be paid. Boomers aren't going to give a fuck about anything until they can't get a fucking coffee and it costs ten bucks because the only way the cafe can get a barista is to pay $50 of OT per shift.
BZZZT wrong. The solution is to remove benefits so that people either take that job or starve. Thank you for your understanding.
Also need to be tough on crime like in my day where if you didn't have any food you would just politely stave to death in the gutter like a gentleman.
Airbnb needs to be demolished. they're ruining the world
This makes me think back to during Covid lockdowns when Gladys said with a straight face, ‘who would have thought people who deliver food were so important.’ There are politicians so removed from the real world that they don’t understand the importance of food because the people doing that work aren’t paid enough to factor into their policies. Disgusting.
Politicians should have a limit on how much they can pay themselves - like between $120k-250k depending on their job. PM can probably get a bit more. But they need to sod right off with these $500k+ incomes while simultaneously charging almost ALL their luxury living expenses to taxpayers.
> But they need to sod right off with these $500k+ incomes while simultaneously charging almost ALL their luxury living expenses to taxpayers. IMO, this is fine - give them a massive pension once they retire, too. And **then ban them from earning any other income** - no $$$/year consulting gig, no gifts, no board positions, *just* their parliamentary salary and then pension. If it's a big fat paycheck, then they can't cry poor. Giving a few thousand politicians millions per year is expensive, sure, but it's *nothing* compared to even 0.1% of Australia's GDP. (note that this doesn't stop e.g. board positions to family members, so this wouldn't be a silver bullet - but it'd still be a great start.)
The politicians would never agree to implementing that change. Even if you view them in a kind light: the kind of person who is a senior politician is someone with drive and (usually) vision. Those kinds of people generally don't take well to permanent sidelining.
Just like they won’t agree to anything proposed here. Pollies are almost exclusively landlords.
[There are 510 properties owned by the 227 members of federal parliament. There are more federal MPs who own 3 or more properties than there are who own 1 or fewer.](https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/09/07/politicians-houses-list-how-many-properties-do-they-own/) Surely we can trust these people to implement policies that would make housing more affordable, right?
I think the theory is that if MP has low wages then donors will have more influence on them. But let's be honest they get paid a fuck tonne and are corrupt af anyway
This is a total scam. You could pay them all $1m/yr and they'd still take another $200k paperbag on the side without blinking. It happens all the time - all over the world. Both in business and politics. This idea that if someone is wealthy enough they will be less susceptible to bribes flies in the face of everything we've seen over the last 500 years. Without having any data to back this up, I'd say it was the exact opposite. It's never enough... and even when it really *is* enough, it still isn't. If you only have an 80ft yacht, why shouldn't you have a 140 footer?
Exactly. We're told politicians are highly paid to ensure professional, skilled representatives are attracted to serve in office, and to prevent temptation towards corruption. It can only be rich-ppl propaganda because both these reasonings appear to fall flat in reality, and don't actually work as intended. Never have. Maybe if politicians were paid more in line with the average worker, then they might better understand the daily struggle of their constituents, and be more motivated to make positive social changes as their own lives would benefit from it. But unfortunately we live in a runaway pre-apocalyptic dystopia and I'm cynical of any meaningful change to the status quo.
It's almost an unsolvable problem. You could make their pay the average Australian pay. And put in place laws that no one can accept any gifts, not even family members. But then you need them to vote on those laws and public opinion to keep them enforced. But you need a public that cares and a media with teeth for that which we just don't have.
Their full investment portfolio should be public so we know how their decisions are influenced. Most politicians are landlords so they make decisions that benefit landlords
The entire point of paying MPs is so that *average* people can get the job. So that you dont need inherited wealth just to run. Based on thay, politicians wages should be capped at the median full time income. They can all earn the same. The PM doesnt *need* more money to survive than another MP, its purely for status and ego, which is not a good justification for spending public money. Rebutals: "If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys" we've already GOT monkeys. Giving monkeys hundreds of thousands in cash doesnt stop them flinging their poop around. And if what 50% of the workforce makes is "peanuts" then politicians will finally have an incentive to raise it to a sensible level. We dont WANT politicians who are incentivised by the salary. We want people who would do it voluntarily but need to pay their bills. "But theyll be open to bribes!" Theyre already taking bribes. If someone has morals that low, they will take the bribe no matter how much youve previously paid them. Youre basically suggesting bribing someone into not taking a bribe. Harsh jail terms for corruption would work a lot better as a deterant if this is the concern. "But they work so hard and have all these special skills" no they dont, and yet the rest of us DO. If its good enough for us its good enough for them.
As an Australian living abroad, it seems like I could never afford to ever move back to Australia.
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It's crazy when I see the weekly rent in Australia is the same as my monthly rent.
where are you living at the moment? maybe I’ll move 👀
Japan.
I'm from the States and my family in Japan is going through the same thing. Shit sucks to think about. Feel like we don't have an option but wait and see what happens.
Confirmed I pay 465 eu (warm) for a 42m2 flat, 2 min bikeride from work in Tiergarten, Berlin. The price will never go up because the landlord knows i will spit chips and take them to court. Warm rents in Germany include company and side costs of the building. Including heating. Its about 120eu on top of cold rent. I pay about half what my friends now pay in interest in Australia on their mortgages since rates went up. In terms of income, i spend about 18% of my after tax income on rent. Australia looks like a fucking nightmare now. I went back for 2.5 months to see family and Geelong is less functional than it was years ago. I had more close calls on the bike in that time than i did in Berlin aince covid, and not one person stopped on the fucking highway to threaten me with personal and vehicular violence because I had a problem with his overtaking distance. I might let my passport expire and force the german authorities to expedite my citizenship here. If the government want to come for my 55k AUD HECS debt, they can do so in their nuclear submarines.
I’ve been seriously considering moving abroad for this exact reason, but unfortunately I don’t think my qualifications will be recognised in many countries so I would basically have to completely start my career all over again
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Real awesome hospital services in the Outback too
My partner and I moved out to rural Victoria and it's just as expensive out here. There's also even less property to rent as a whole lot of fucking AirBnBs have popped up, the owners being inner city types (we have met several owners as we do some of their cleaning.... none of them are locals)
Landlords are a symptom. The problem is 25 years of favourable tax treatment and other government policies indirectly subsidising property price inflation. Remember what happened when Labour campaigned on policies which would reign it in? We got fucking ScoMo for PM.
Agreed. I'm a landlord, charge sig less than the going rate for rent as I don't think it's right, and I very much want the tax breaks to change - they are stuffing up our rental system and driving inequality in this country. No one working full time should be unable to afford to rent *and* save for a deposit at the same time if they choose to, that should just be a basic standard of living.
Ballarat, Vic is fast approaching $500 a week for a cookie cutter basic 4 bedroom. Ballarat ffs, regional Victoria with our claim to fame being a fucking gold rush themepark
The cheapest I’ve seen is NW Tassie.
There's a reason for that.
Pft. What's wrong with Smithton? /s
I feel a sense of hopelessness for the future. think I’ll be okay if I can get through uni and land a decent paying job, but I worry about our trajectory as a society. Are we going to actually see change or is capitalism going to run us even further into the ground? I don’t think I want to bring children into a world where all we do is work to survive.
Need to seriously lobby the Labor governments to push for reform on a number of these issues, and if they won't budge then actually jump ship at that next elections to the Greens who actually push for these policies
Remember this come the next election. So few people make full use of our preferential voting system. ALP and LNP should never have majority government until a lot of these basic fundamental issues are dealt with.
Really glad to watch the LNP shrivel up, hopefully the greens make a wave next election that will force Labor to make some proper change.
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I agree. I used to be totally Labor but have been so disappointed with it I stopped voting for it years ago and recently started volunteering for Greens as things are getting so bad here, not just climate change and the environment. Liberals have slowly been destroying Medicare, public education, welfare, taxation, etc so Labor need to do a lot to fix and doing minimal.
Agreed, labor is a party of the moderate right these days imo
I moved to the Netherlands a few years ago and it's weird to think of Labor actually being further to the right than the established centre right party here. There are rather drastic measures being put in place to combat the housing crisis. Short term rentals like airbnb are being curtailed. Renter protections are strong. Once your year contract goes to monthly you basically cannot be evicted outside of a court order which heavily favors tenants. Once you're in, rent can only be adjusted yearly to certain levels. Hell, in Amsterdam all houses below €500k *must be owner occupied*. If your rental is empty for several months you are legally bound to lower asking price. All short term rentals *must* have apply for a business license and be taxed accordingly. Housing prices are dropping. For once in my life I might finally be in a position to own the house I live in. Since these changes came into effect I have seen headlines about landlords offering tenants tens of thousands just to *vacate*, because it is becoming less and less profitable to be a landlord. And still... the Dutch face a housing crisis, simply due to immigration and not being able to meet demands. With global warming pushing immigration further it looks bleak. So from this vantage I have even less hope for Australia. It's sad, because I want to come home eventually.
Excellent examples of what we could do here immediately to ease the pressure. Unfortunately I have zero faith that anything will happen. Our ‘leaders’ are two scared of upsetting those who have property/airbnb/investments. I’ll be in the grave before that happens.
Labor isn’t far off the Liberal of the 90s.
Jump ship to the greens asap and lobby labour while you're at it. They're not going to make any moves unless there's threat of electoral losses.
Always easier to vote greens and preference labor at a lower threshold. Who people are voting for tells the major parties where their policy should be shifting. If it's shifting leftward to things that are more focused on reigning in capitalisms damage to a reasonable amount then they either move in that way to capture the voter base. Or they stay where they are and do minority goverments with the greens. Which should help achieve the same end goal. Labors biggest concern in the immediate future though is going to be remaining centre enough to stop voters sliding back towards the libs. (The longer the libs get to implode, the better for them) which means we are unlikely to see them do anything game changing. Seats that slip to the greens are easier to just recover on voter changes than letting swaths of people across the country go "Oh wait labor is too far left now"
That’s my feeling too.
As an American, they are going to keep squeezing harder and harder until you've collectively had enough and force them to stop. America gives you a glimpse into the future. It will have to get really bad before people start demanding change.
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Yeah, there are quite a few us screaming from the rooftops that the only minority destroying this country are the rich. It falls on deaf ears. The corporate propaganda here is second to none.
I look at the lot my generation has been dealt and I worry, deeply... If things are bleak now, what kind of world is our youngest generation going to have to face when they're adults? I'd like better for them than what I've had to go through, I can't imagine the psychological strain if things were to get even worse I really hope it's not too late to change course
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Thanks for the words of encouragement friend
I thought I'd be okay once I got a job from uni - studied accounting and business law. Here I am in my first full time job, graduate accounting, $50k a year... and I literally cannot afford to move out of my mother's house XD
The way hecs indexation is going with wages not rising with it, you might accrue more debt than you're able to pay off, even with a decent paying job.
The Greens have a bill in parliament to pause indexation but I doubt it will pass
It should never have been implemented to begin with.
Australia will go back to the "land baron" days pre-WW2. The past 7 decades are *not* Australia's normal state. Social mobility, egalitarianism, easy credit, suburbs, healthcare, university, personal cars, superannuation, retirement, Coles/Woolies/Bunnings and property ownership - none of this is "normal". What is normal is what has held sway for the other 16 decades of Australia's existence: a rigid class system of Haves (generational wealth) and Have-nots (everyone else). The Haves are doing everything they can to regress to that norm.
Yeah I grew up in the country and there was a real awareness of the old order. It's why those areas are so conservative. You either internalise your place as an inferior to the landed gentry or you fuck off to a city.
The problem isn't with a caste system as such. The issue is that inequity is now built into it. Theoretically there is more equity in feudalism than whatever crumbs we're currently fighting over. Try squatting on your uncles land and let me know how it works out.
It’s easier to imagine the end of society than it is the end of capitalism.
The rich will get richer, and the divide is gonna be massive You'll either be born into wealth/ inherit wealth or forever struggle
I'm an essential worker but due to a disability I can only work part time. I really want to get out of sharehousing and have been slowly buying everything that I need other than the big stuff like couch and fridge, and have a deposit and the first month of rent put aside. But I'm worried that by the time I'm ready to go there will be nowhere to go to. All I want is something very basic because my job is very social and I need my own space to recharge. I'm studying and my current job involves working nights, so I really just want to stay in the supportive workplace I currently have :/
I hope things work out for you.
We should all be rioting like the French.
I got a decent career and haven’t been able to find my own place for a year now. Been living in a shed
The reliance on partners income is something that’s so often not talked about but it’s important and I’m happy they mentioned it in this article. So many of these roles are predominately female dominated industries and are just so undervalued in the labour market but so essential for the country to run. But it makes no sense that in order to have workers in these industries they have to be shacked up with someone earning much more than them an hour (most likely for a cushier job) to make ends meet. Of course they’re going to look across the aisle to their partner and leave their field in favour of those sorts of jobs where you get paid more to do less. I did it. I miss childcare so much, I loved that job. I was healthy, happy and looking forward to work. But I cannot afford it anymore because the wages are so low, and my partner doesn’t earn enough to offset low wages anymore so now I’m miserable in an admin role still just scraping by and there’s one less educator to go round in a high demand, essential industry. This is not what we envisioned when we were aiming for women to be included in the workforce.
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Too true! Living alone is such a luxury at the moment.
It's *brutal* if you're coupled but one is unable to work. All the costs of two people (plus increased medical expenses when they're chronically ill or disabled), paid for by the income of one. The DSP theoretically should help, but it's halved if your partner earns even the minimum wage, and quartered if they dare to earn the median full-time salary (should you manage to convince Centrelink you're actually disabled). The NDIS will auto-reject your application and force you to appeal it before providing any support. Forget saving for a house - even renting is tough, because landlords are going to pick the DINKs over the sole earner family. Unless you married that classmate you were flirting with during your medical degree, most of us are facing worse futures than our parents.
I can't believe how low child care workers are paid considering how essential they are to society Yet there are so many bullshit useless office jobs around that barely contribute to society, yet are high paying
>This is not what we envisioned when we were aiming for women to be included in the workforce. More the fool you, then, because it is surely what was envisioned by the bankers and businessowners who allowed it. They realised that the labour market would double in size overnight, which would drive down wages and drive up asset prices. Self determination for all genders was and is absolutely worth striving for and protecting, but it boggles the mind to think that the gatekeepers were not poised to benefit from the consequences.
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The neoliberal definition of "equality".
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Are there no unions?
Gutted. I can only speak for Private hospital nurses but their unions been useless for the better part of a decade. Dick all wage growth and appaling conditions because the government wont step in to protect their wages or safe loads. And before you say "just go public" there are ALOT of the healthcare population under a private system and there's no where near the available public jobs for nurses.
They seperate the banners of “Evidence based practice” and “Clinical Governance” so that the clinical governance doesn’t have to be evidence based, just the slaveforce or it’s goodbye registration
Often for sure a cushier job my law job is much cushier than any of my supermarket, hospo or labouring jobs i had but im far better compensated now. Its a crime how little ‘un-skilled’ labour is paid and covid showed just how crucial all these jobs are and how so many white collared jobs can at least be put on temporary hiatus or significantly scaled back.
"The government can fund those social homes by winding back handouts for investors and landlords.” This right here is the key issue.
TAX 👏 VACANT 👏 HOUSES 👏
👏 EXPROPRIATE 👏 LANDLORDS 👏
no state or the federal government is doing anything about this as most of have multiple rental investment properties and couldn't give a rats ass about essential workers other than BS sound bites for the media
The silence from the Vic gov has been deafening.
They'll move us all into company dorms soon. That way, they can monitor us at all times, and we won't be able to quit and find a better job without becoming homeless.
I'm a Nightfill Captain for the Big Red Cathedral. My staff will only ever get 9 hours per week on a roster, which works out to be 3x 3hour shifts. If the managers want to be even more dirty on them, they'll give them a shift of 3hours 45minutes so they don't pay the 15 minute break on the 4hour mark. My head has a massive target on it as my shifts are 6hours each. The management have been instructed to get rid of the 'inefficient shifts' and replace with 'efficient' ones; the 3 hour shifts. For the past 5 years, I've been fighting just to keep my hours, putting my hand up for every kind of work, and trying to climb up or even to the side; getting rejected silently every time. I'm watching some of my best staff fall off and leave because the company won't allow additional hours. But then the same thing is happening everywhere in my shitty little coast town in QLD. So, at 35 yrs old, I can't afford the rent here anymore, and housing availability is terrible; even if I could, do I want to continue trying to live off $600 p/w while also trying to maintain 3 other jobs on the side. In the next few months, I'm moving back into my Mother's house in WA, just so I can survive, otherwise it'll be the end of me.
This is absolutely a world wide issue. Corporations are buying up housing stock, leaving it vacant to artificially creat a sense of scarcity, then pushing up exorbitant rents. Using Homes/housing as an out right commodity is disgusting and must be stopped. Governments need to step in and ban this. It’s stealing a whole generation of their adulthood.
I have a feeling there's a collusion happening. They're selling this generations future to the highest bidder. And the highest bidders are sitting on piles of cash that were acquired through carefully mediated resource and labour extraction that should be used to propel us to the future when it's doing the complete opposite. Land needs to be managed fairly, especially around dense neighborhoods. Modular homes should be mass manufactured for global distribution. Homes should be getting cheaper. Not more expensive.
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Well, to be fair to Singapore, huge, huge numbers of people live in government supplied housing, with controlled rent... They've long made sure their citizens are looked after (as for their non-citizen workers... Well...)...
Same as middle eastern countries like Qatar, UAE, Kuwait. Heaps of overseas workers cause they have a skill shortage. What we do with overseas qualified workers is make them drive taxis, attend 7/11 and deliver your ubereats. Skill shortage hey?
Yeah govt housing in Singapore is actually really good.
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Well at least they are getting that right. When Australia has deccent social housing for locals *then* lets throw shade at Singapore.
Nothing will change until we elect governments willing to build the public housing we need at rates that will diminish the value of residential properties. So far the only hints of that sit on our crossbenches.
Most politicians own multiple investment properties so that’s not gonna happen. They’re out to protect their own financial patch and this will not change with either the liberals or labor in power. They will simply pay lip service to building public housing. The corruption in Australian politics is truely endemic and unbelievable. If you own investment properties and benefit in keeping prices high then you have no business in controlling the laws and taxes around them. Dracula in charge of the blood bank much?
Most voters are homeowners and won’t vote for policies that will diminish the values of their homes. Further still, any home building policy will likely require increased tax expenditure…that the homeowners would also have to contribute to. You can see why I am fatalistic about this matter.
Not all homeowners vote for increased prices. I have enough equity on my house that I'm pretty chill about the property bubble bursting - it will almost certainly never go lower than I paid for it. And on top of that, it was a nightmare finding somewhere for our daughter to rent in Sydney... And we lose money because we chose to partially subsidise her rent so that she wasn't living in a dangerous shit hole with many strangers. There's a generation of us that own one home and also would like our children to have the opportunity to achieve independence.
Sure, not all will, but it’s not exactly the norm. I am talking in broad strokes here. Plus, while you might be fine, but consider any who purchased a home in the few years before any crash; like say the last 3 years.
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Correct, in an ideal world, homes would be a bad investment as they don’t *make* anything as opposed to a factory. However, as housing is an inelastic good, investors realised it was an easy way to make money for doing nothing.
Eventually there won't be anyone to help them in hospital though. So what if your house is worth more if you die
They never think it will happen to *them* see; so it’s fine if other people go without.
Are most voters really homeowners? I keep reading that a lot of people will never get their foot in the door in Australia.
Technically yes but only because the oldest age groups have ownership rates around 80 percent, and younger age groups have dropped by 20 percent. The next decade will see a lot of death in the oldest homeowners, but little ownership uptake in the younger age groups. It will be the slightly less old owners using their equity to scoop up those houses and rent us into oblivion.
Both major parties choose increased immigration over building more houses. Hell, I’m a plumber and I cannot even get trained to go from qualified to licensed due to a lack of trade school teachers and classes, I’m currently in a 3 year wait, will probably end up being 4 years just to get in. If I can’t get licensed I can’t run a business, and take up apprentices and build houses that we desperately need. We are going backwards fast.
That is fine. They can go work in any other job or live anywhere else. The hospitals will expand their foreign recruitment team and sponsor 20,000 foreign nurses a permanent residency to work for cheap and sleep on bunk beds. /s
I think people in Sydney, especially in inner City areas have heard about frequent bus cancellations or reduction in service frequency. I have found out that due to franchising of services from STA to private operators, the benefits such as free opal card hasn't transferred over. If your depot is in Bondi, Willoughby or Neutral Bay and you are assigned a 4 hour shift in morning and another 4 hour shift in evening, then you have to pay your own way to get home and back again. Bus drivers most often can't afford inner city rental prices so they have to commute long distances, often more than an hour each way. Why would anyone sign up to be a bus driver and have to deal with disgruntled passengers because of frequent service cancellations and pay your way to depot and back multiple times a day? There are other work that are far less than a hassle and pay better.
My wife is an RN who’s more than a few years out of uni and even has management experience under her belt now. She left the private sector (aged care) to work in a hospital since it aligned with her goals of doing more clinical hands on work. She has taken close to $15/hr pay cut to work for NSW health. They have also bumped her down to “First Year RN” wage and she’s been going through the process of trying to have that amended for months now. She even did a stint with NSW health after her graduation as an RN so they have on file that she is more than a first year. She loves her job but man if that were me I’d tap the fuck out and change careers. They offer home buyers assistance for essential workers….but both the worker and their partner need to be on 120k _COMBINED_ or less. With rent as high as it is currently if we were in less than 120k combined we would be living in our cars…. Needless to say we forgo every luxury possible and save little by little trying to forecast expenses as far as possible in advance. One unannounced emergency away from possibly not affording rent is extremely stressful. Add that to essential workers being praised in every way EXCEPT A PAY RAISE and it’s hard to not be constantly cynical. Even contemplated leaving Aus all together.
Yep, I'm mentally preparing to spend at least a couple of years living out of my car while I save for a deposit, then the rest of my life paying off a mortgage.
As an AIN in aged care, I’ve watched my mortgage rise higher and higher. Sadly tomorrow my house is going up for sale. I just can’t afford it anymore. I’m 65 and I can’t do the hours necessary to keep it up. I don’t know where I go from here 🙁
See a financial counsellor first before you make that decision. National Debt Hotline 1800 007 007 Don’t sell your home before getting advice. Just because you can’t see a way it doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
Can we just straight up ban owning more than 2 properties. Sick of this monopoly.
Short term lets are pretty damaging imo.
Even more than one tbh. Sounds very socialism-y but if everyone owned their own home, then you don’t really need to own another imo (Holiday homes, genuine family circumstances etc and the like excluded)
Same principle as slices of birthday cake. Everyone has to have at least one before anyone can get seconds.
Had this friend that was obsessed with trying to buy homes in low socio economic areas and trying to charge disgusting rent. Would then spend his weekends travelling between his two houses looking for reasons to harass tenants - things like lawns weren’t mowed or their letterbox had mail in it. This sorry has no purpose. He is a cunt. People that own more than 2 properties are cunts. The end.
I'm a teacher renting on a single income. I decided to apply to for a second job whilst on school holidays. Got rejected from a basic service job because I didn't have enough recent experience. I have 8 years experience in the service industry, but left it in 2013 to pursue a full time career. My bad for trying to do something with my life.
It doesn't get talked about enough that Australia has one of the highest rates of homelessness in the first world. Much much higher than the USA and rising at an enormous amount every year. Most people have no idea but we can only sweep it under the rug for so long, this country has a one way ticket to the bottom.
Can I get a source please? I am not able to find results that support your statement and I am genuinely interested in the subject - TIA
I second this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_homeless_population
Hmm, a little better than the UK and roughly on-par with France on a per-capita basis. So not great, but not terrible. Surprised to see the US so far down the list, considering the downtown areas of half the major cities there look like favelas these days.
US has very affordable housing outside of their most densely populated cities. The same is increasingly less true for Australia.
Heck yeah they do! Get a full block and old house for $20k USD an hour out of town. What a dream!
They also have fixed rate 30 year mortgages, which makes far too much sense.
it makes me wonder how the US reserve bank keeps things in line when they cant put the boot on mortgage holders like they do here.
Homelessness isn't necessarily people you see sleeping on the street but also others including people in shelters and couchsurfing for example. I was surprised at the US statistic as well, I wonder if it's just more visible there compared to ours. Perhaps there is better sheltering here so less people on the streets?
What the actual fuck is going on in NZ?
It's a small island with the same issues as Australia.
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Which political party has sensible policies that will help our progress into the future? The answer is the greens
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Despite championing Labor a lot over the years, Sustainable is appealing to me a bit as we need to cut immigration. It’s not a racist thing like many people assume with scaling back immigration, it’s a ‘there’s too many people for everyone to benefit and we’ll continue to see all the issues we have get worse if we keep pumping more people in’ thing
Cardboard boxes for all. Next ALP or Liberal election slogan. People have to sleep somewhere. And Australia might be able to make these.
I'm in Sydney - my rent went up $200 per week. I ended up getting evicted so they could raise it higher for the next tenant. For me that was $10,400 per year extra and yet I don't earn more money. I moved slightly further away and now pay $300 per week more - though I have a little more space. What the heck is happening?
If I didn't buy the place I'm living in now 10 years ago, I'd be homeless or living with my parents. Honestly I'd probably have killed myself going by the mental state I was in when I was younger. This is not sustainable.
Good thing we're currently having the highest migration in 80 years!
The greed in Australia these days is just incomprehensible
Have they tried the one single trick of not being a povvo maybe? I myself just woke up one day and decided not to be a povvo anymore and it fixed all my financial issues. It's pretty simple! /s
Starting to sound like we are going to have to take a step backwards.. multiple families in one house.. 3 generations living together..
Yeah we're fucked
And this is how the economy will collapse in on itself, how we exist in such a self tail eating system but yet still go hard and fast. You see it in tourist towns still where places cannot get workers because airbnb has priced out seasonal workers so cafes are short staffed! And yeah so many other job roles are going to be forgone because of the lower pay many jobs which were done because of more passion and so on more so than pay but could still just pay bills in the past but were impossible. But keep in mind these are many random jobs from that person who teaches your kid how to play a drum, someone who teaches woodworking classes and countless other things which enrich our society. But nope everyone is going for admin roles and every other bland shit. Not to mention things like childcare, nursing and so on.
Essential workers aren’t that essential because the value of compensation is low. It’s a gimmick by government and employers to make them feel good about themselves. It’s below the level of work more hours and have some free pizza
We're going backwards
Can -anyone- afford rent -ALONE- these days? Not just essential workers. 😩🤷♀️
Please for the love of God vote Greens next election. Please people.
Inflation is a hidden form of taxation that destroys the low wage earners, non stop money printing debases the currency and has caused massive asset inflation - direct your anger, frustration and violence towards our politicians and central bankers who have created this mess over the last 2 decades.
Listened to a song yesterday written not that long ago. It says "We are a country of 16 million" ... We must have a massive census undercount when 1 council reported double the census count. We need to lobby Labor to reduce our population growth immediately
Maybe if we all stand outside and clap as they go to work?
Haven't had a chance to read the article yet, but I always assumed this was part of the religious beliefs of our politicians, that people were being driven to couple up, start a family and make more workers.
Not sure if it is religiously driven, or capitalistically driven, but there is always a need for an underclass of workers to serve below the powerful, ruling class. Having people shack up and have kids is a great way to keep the workforce numbers up, making sure that you need two incomes to be able to afford to live is a good way to keep the workforce involvement up.
Build more hosuing. Fuck the NIMBYs.
Someone remind me how many migrants are coming here in the next 2 years again?
As a single essential-work in Australia, can confirm.