Yurt Empire

More senate enquiry stuff

Ah! We could have put in a submission if I'd seen this TWO WEEKS AGO! Gah!

more boom and bust stuff from SMH - N.B. Senate Enquiry into affordable housing: "But housing affordability isn't just a problem for middle-class Australia. Concern about a lack of affordable housing has prompted a Senate inquiry - due to report in June - on the regimes of incentives, planning and funding that currently affect the supply of affordable housing for the country's most vulnerable and less well-off."

The Economy Widening gap: Housing prices have outpaced wage growth over the past 12 months. Photo: Fiona Morris The $4 trillion Australian housing market is now overvalued by at least 10 per cent. Every day, valuations get more stretched. Indeed, Australia is just months away from having the most expensive residential property market in history.

INCREDIBLE DESIGN!!!!

"hey are not increasing affordability. They are not more environmentally sustainable. They are increasing housing supply, mainly for local and global elites to accumulate capital. A major consequence of the Australian government's taxation and regulatory regimes regarding housing has been to increase prices by encouraging demand for housing as a commodity, rather than a place to live. The various inquiries into the state of the Australian housing market should look at not just the regulations on foreign investment, but at the taxation regimes that encourage the home-grown approach. Most importantly the inquiries should ask: what is the effect of Australian regulation and taxation regimes on what is being built, and for whom?"

"Across the world communities are struggling to defend their earth, air water and resources and their livelihoods from damaging environmental impacts. Mining projects, mega dams, tree plantations, fracking, gas flaring, incinerators, etc … As resources needed to fuel our economy move through the commodity chain from extraction, processing and disposal, environmental impacts are externalized onto the most marginalized populations. But all this takes place far from the eyes of the consumers of the end-products. The EJ atlas aims to make these impacts more visible and to make the case for true corporate and state accountability for the injustices inflicted through their activities. This Atlas collects stories from around the world of communities struggling for environmental justice. It attempts to serve as a virtual space for those working on EJ issues to get information, find other groups working on related issues, and increase the visibility of environmental conflicts."