Yesterday I wrote about the Department of Housings boast of having a more efficient system, labelled “Fair Expectations of Behaviour” for managing poorly behaved social welfare housing tenants than the Newman government’s “Three strikes” policy. My criticism was based on their own figures, but there is nothing like some anecdotal evidence to round things out, […]

Many years ago I wrote an article for the ACT Labor newsletter about Australia as ‘the last California’. Those forms of local participation no longer exist, but the phrase still seems useful. Perhaps more so, as globalisation has made the movement of people almost as fluid as cash. People are always looking for somewhere the […]

Everything starts with ideas. Intellectuals are people who consider the world of ideas to be a real place. And maybe I spend more time in la-la land than most. But to have an idea and then see it take shape in metal, wood and glass, so far beyond any construction skills we could personally muster…now […]

House prices are falling and interest rates are rising, which is bad news for existing home buyers, and new home buyers too. Doesn’t sound right, but it is unfortunately true. Unless we fix the underlying supply and demand problems in housing, lower house prices will only be temporary, and will in fact eventually lead to […]