A home brings dignity to a life

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Homelessness happens to people we don’t know, doesn’t it? To those who got themselves into an unfortunate situation, not deliberately but certainly through their own mistakes. Jobless most likely. Well, in the current circumstances of Australia’s lack of housing, think again. My ex-nextdoor neighbour stayed at my place last week while he moved out of the unit he has lived in and nurtured for more than 10 years. The agent increased the rent to $600 a week and that was just over the top. While it was hard enough to say, ″⁣I am moving out if you won’t negotiate,″⁣ (and they wouldn’t), finding an alternative, suitable rental has been shockingly impossible. He does have a job but the cost of moving, especially without somewhere to go, drains the wallet. He would be a model tenant of a SHIG (small home in the garden) as would so many others who desperately deserve the basic human needs of shelter and dignity.
I have a very little garden or I would be happy to build one myself. NIMBYs should just count their blessings that they have a nice backyard and realise that the cost to them of a neighbour’s SHIG is minimal and the benefit to society is huge. Jan Roberts, Templestowe Lower

This lunacy of Stage 3 tax cuts must end
Waleed Aly reminds us that in seven months the Stage 3 tax cuts will begin (Comment, 17/11). They will deliver an extra $9000 a year to those in the top income brackets. This will exacerbate the growing divide between the haves and the have nots and, perhaps more importantly, further undermine the current low trust in government. Undertakings made before elections, at another time, must be reviewed when the circumstances change. The context is now very different, with high inflation and people struggling to pay mortgages and rents. The people who will benefit from the cuts probably won’t even notice they have received them, but the rest will. It is a social and political lunacy that really benefits no one.
Jenny Macmillan, Clifton Hill

Learning the roots of wealth inequality
The article ″⁣Is this the end of the middle class?″⁣, (19/11) is a pleasing example of honesty about the trajectory of wealth inequality in Australia. Instead of advice from the wealthy to the non-wealthy on how to become wealthy like them, the onus for directing the nation’s path is changing hands as the non-wealthy majority begins ″⁣to redefine what constitutes a balanced and achievable lifestyle″⁣. However, this shift is a huge trumpet call to historians. As the non-wealthy majority embrace new meanings for what constitutes a life well-lived, they deserve to know how the great shift to wealth inequality happened, to have fully exposed all capitalism’s lies and unethical practices.
Ruth Farr, Blackburn South

Making progress is a test of our character
Your correspondent (Letters, 18/11) says that in regard to the ever announced and ever cancelled projects such as the Geelong fast rail, that it is ″⁣time to move on″⁣. Moving on then just means more of the same – housing and infrastructure stresses in Melbourne, and the neglect of regional cities. Surely we can do better than this – and get a move on. Peter Drum, Coburg

A dead parrot of a nation
Supercharging population growth through high immigration is inflationary and is causing a housing crisis. High inflation is causing the RBA to put up interest rates, which is increasing further the cost of home ownership. Building infrastructure, which is required to cope with the population growth, is being cancelled as it is inflationary, but the population is continuing to surge. We don’t have the workers to build the infrastructure anyway, nor to build the necessary housing to solve the housing crisis. It seems that the immigration system has not prioritised these skills.
This is like something out of Monty Python. I nominate John Cleese for PM. At least he will give us a laugh.
Barry Lizmore, Ocean Grove

FORUM

States of chaos
Antony Loewenstein (Comment, 18/11) labels a possible two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict as ″⁣the answer to a question that nobody serious is proposing. It’s the zombie solution that’s resurrected every time the Middle East is on fire.″⁣
Given the refusal of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to engage with the idea of a Palestinian state, Loewenstein has a right to be sceptical about its likelihood. But his alternative is a one-state solution ″⁣crafted by Israelis and Palestinians″⁣. This proposal, he writes, is ″⁣not a utopian idea, divorced from the reality of Israel and Palestine″⁣.
Perhaps a small minority of Israelis and Palestinians would be prepared to embrace this utopian idea. But Israelis are not likely to agree to end having a Jewish state, and Palestinians need to have space to fulfil their own dreams of self-determination and craft their own society.
The two-state solution may be unattainable, but until Israel and Palestine sit down to negotiate an acceptable resolution to their conflict we won’t know.
Harold Zwier, Elsternwick

Impossible dream
Antony Loewenstein (18/11) no longer believes that “a full Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza should, hopefully, see the establishment of a vibrant, independent Palestinian state, living in peace alongside a secure Israel”.
Instead he proposes “a one-state solution, crafted by Israelis and Palestinians”. Such a state would include a total separation between church and state and secular education. Is he living in a world divorced from reality?
Does he not know that the Palestinians of Gaza elected Hamas, which is dedicated not only to the destruction of Israel and the killing of its Jews, but to the creation of an Islamist state?
Where in an Islamist state is there room for separation of church and state? Loewenstein says that “religious, cultural and political safeguards would be put into place”. How? By whom? Enforced how?
Peter James Weiss,
St Kilda East

Move the UN
Thank you Antony Loewenstein for explaining the one-state solution. To further help facilitate the process towards a lasting peace we might then envisage a pro-active UN relocating its HQ permanently within this new state. The move would be more than symbolic. It would remind us that we’re all in this together and herald in an era where reconciliation is the cornerstone for a peaceful co-existence for everyone.
Peter Carolan, East Bentleigh

Start talking
Antony Loewenstein writes convincingly that a two-state solution is untenable to resolve the Israel-Palestine deadlock. However, a one-state solution is also a pipe dream.
Assuming Israel can destroy the majority of Hamas forces in Gaza is an expectation that goes against modern warfare logic. Some who escape will inevitably become leaders of newly formed fanatic terrorist organisations, leading and training the now terrorised and disaffected Gazan youth. Furthermore, who is going to rebuild and maintain the destroyed Gazan territory? Certainly not Israel or outside entities, such as the US or any Arab states.
The US assumption that Israel and the current Palestinian leadership, or a newly formed one might be a political alliance that agrees to a two-state solution is idealistic. However, Loewenstein’s one-state solution is just as idealistic and also unrealistic. Israel now has half a million setters, including religious zealots living across the West Bank who will fight any solution, be it a two-state or one-state future. When Ariel Sharon tried to move a much smaller enclave of just 9000 from Gaza nearly 20 years ago, the fightback resulted in violence. Israel must change course urgently and work towards resolution of its relationship with its own ultra nationalists and the Palestinian population. They need to start talking with each other, and fast.
Jeffrey Kelson, Prahran

Rage on the roads
My husband, a careful driver, received an infringement notice last week, with a fine of $481 and three demerit points. His crime was that on turning right at lights in Sydney Road, the ″⁣Elapsed time on Red″⁣ was 0.5 seconds.
This penalty would be (almost) acceptable, if it were not to be compared proportionately with the driving styles we see nightly along Beach Road. Dozens of hyped-up motor bikes and deafeningly loud cars are driven dangerously over the speed limit, with some drivers, recognised repeat offenders, employing very loud exhaust mechanisms. This sustained reckless behaviour appears not to be an offence, nor penalty applied. Some vehicles are driven so fast and noisily in the area, that pedestrians leap away from roadsides to escape possible injury from unruly, crazy and irresponsible behaviour.
The comparison with the ″⁣one-off 0.5sec″⁣ infringement is ludicrous.
Sue Parrington, Port Melbourne

You can bank on this
Following the Reserve Bank’s recent decision to increase the interest rate by 0.25 per cent, we were notified by our bank that the rate on our savings would be increased by 0.1 per cent. Would I be naive to assume that the same bank has also increased its mortgage rate by only 0.1 per cent? And, when the Reserve eventually drops interest rates by 0.25 per cent, will the rate for savers only decrease by 0.1 per cent? Crikey, that royal commission really taught those banks a lesson.
John Feehan, Drouin

Generous to a fault
Here is another piece of evidence to reinforce the admission made by Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin to the Senate hearing that the outage was unacceptable, and the telco’s performance was poor. As a small business owner, I contacted Optus to ask what compensation I may apply for given I already have unlimited data on my mobile and internet packages. I was generously offered $5 one-off payment for each of my two business accounts to compensate for six hours of outage.
Sarah Dyer, Rye

Ban duck shooting, now
It’s time Premier Jacinta Allan gave an update on duck shooting. In the state election a year ago, 22 Labor members publicly called for a ban on duck shooting in Victoria. Nevertheless, the 2023 shooting season went ahead. Then the “Inquiry into Victoria’s recreational native bird hunting arrangements” was held, receiving a record of more than 9000 submissions and finding in August 2023 for a ban from the 2024 season.
It’s time to implement the ban now.
Malcolm Cameron, Camberwell

What legacy is being left?
Columnist Victoria Devine (19/11) tells us that inflation has outpaced wages by about 250 per cent and then says don’t worry, just adopt a “more realistic and adaptable approach to success”. Young people now face a lifetime of paying off a huge mortgage, whereas people of my generation (in the seventies) could pay off a house loan in 10 to 20 years on a single salary.
The young generation are being fleeced by the old, rich generation who are the ones benefiting from skyrocketing house values and rents.
It’s time we older folk started thinking more carefully about the mess we are leaving our kids.
Keith Burrows, Fairfield

Inspirational youth
Our young people, still at school, are taking to the streets to express their concerns about climate change, and we should honour and respect them. The world that will experience climate change will be their world, and it is the world that we – their parents and grandparents – have allowed to happen because we have refused to accept the warnings. Hopefully we can follow this example from our youngsters and demand immediate and effective action by our leaders. I wish them all the best.
Sean O’Sullivan,
Mount Toolebewong

It is time to act
Increasingly we feel sad and helpless in the face of Australian and international news. Australia’s refusal to endorse the Voice to parliament and the resulting despair of First Nations people. The awful crisis in the Middle East. We are inclined then to turn to easy answers, including saying the referendum was divisive, ignoring the fact that Australia is very divided already down racial lines. Saying our PM should have defied the High Court and kept convicted offenders with no visas in custody forever, even though they had served their time. Blaming one side or the other in the Middle East.
Surely world leaders and their nation’s citizens can work together to find solutions or is it just easier to shout slogans? Are leaders more concerned with shoring up their political kudos? Julie Baird explores this in her article “If we can jail outsiders for life, then we must ask, who are we?” (19/11). Indeed. Is it not us who respond to our leaders’ actions? If we responded differently, would the leaders behave differently?
Is it not time to think more deeply and pressure community and political leaders to act differently? Our world depends on it and no, you are not helpless.
Jan Marshall, Brighton

Follow Chicago’s lead
Sometime ago my brother and I landed at O’Hare Airport, Chicago, collected our luggage, went down a level and for the cost of $5 stepped onto a train that took us maybe the same distance as Tullamarine to Melbourne, arrived in Chicago on the famous overhead rail system, got off, went downstairs, walked around a corner and entered our hotel. This is why we should persevere with our rail projects and help maintain Melbourne’s most liveable city status.
Greg Bardin, Altona North

AND ANOTHER THING

Tiny houses
Granny flat, bungalow, tiny house, they are all good options.
Gill Riley, Doncaster East

Bungalow would suffice if the term ″⁣granny flat″⁣ becomes problematic.
Brendan O’Farrell, Brunswick

I don’t support the ″⁣granny flat in backyard″⁣ concept. I need the space for my second ″⁣Beemer″⁣.
David Cayzer, Clifton Hill

Furthermore
All the old people living in NORCS must be giggling like schoolchildren as they are old enough to know that norks means boobs (″⁣Retiring to the city″⁣, 18/11).
Kim Smith, Hughesdale

Vilification of refugees started with the children overboard lie. It continues with even more force in federal parliament today.
Reg Murray, Glen Iris

In regards to a gender-neutral pronoun for ″⁣they″⁣ (Letters, 18/11), a suggestion might be Km (for Mr and Miss and Mrs ), Ke ( for he and she ), and Koh ( for him and her ).
Meg McPherson, Brighton

Thanks to columnist Julia Baird (19/11) for her words which bring us to our senses and, hopefully to our knees.
Anne Byrne, Hawthorn East

Unfortunately, Antony Loewenstein’s opinion piece (18/11), though admirably well-intentioned, reads more like a utopian fantasy novel than a viable plan for peace.
Peter Rushen, Carnegie

Leunig
Thank God for Leunig (18/11). Another wonderful cartoon and so accurate. Could copies be sent to Israel, Hamas, Russia and China?
Diane Tew, Vermont

Could the Leunig cartoon be produced as a poster or arrangement made for permission to readers to copy and frame it? I think Leunig understands God better than most humans.
Margaret Arthur, Haven

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