The market slide is a logical conclusion of Coalition policies

Has the property-driven market slide begun? Glenn Dyer seems to think so, and Crikey readers were inclined to agree. Many saw it as the inevitable, while others questioned if it will lead to change in policy or the industry (conclusion: not likely). Elsewhere, readers discussed the “farce” of question time in light of potential reform.

On the property slide

Jim Feehely writes: It is the obvious consequence of the neoliberal delusion that the sacred “market’ fixes everything. I take no pleasure in predicting that this could be Australia’s own version of the sub-prime crisis in the US. Only this is not based on exotic derivatives that nobody, including their creators, understand. This is the consequence of plain old political economic mismanagement; the illogical and inequitable negative gearing idiocy and the myopia and stupidity of over-optimistic property industry players. But as always, the self-important idiots who have created this mess will, in the main, suffer a great deal less than the rest of us who have not contributed to the lunacy of Australian property prices at all. The other victims will be the aspirational types whose greed has been justified by negative gearing. There will be lots of fire-sale units available to those who simply aspire to having one home in which to live. But none of them will qualify for lending reserved only for the stupid and greedy rich. Regrettably we will learn nothing from this because it will all be misrepresented by the Coalition as some sort of neoliberal necessity.

Mark E Smith writes: Houses are for living in and every effort should be made to keep prices and rents as low as possible as this confers the widest benefit to the most people. We can understand this easily with other consumer prices so why not housing. Yes they’re assets so that complicates things, but it’s time to get off the developer-led craziness.

On Question time

Mike Anger writes: Question time is a farce. Most MPs treat it as if they were auditioning for a reality TV show. They know it’s the only bit of parliament that will get on the evening news. We need independent speakers who are not beholden to any party, to administer some discipline to these recalcitrant school children. The speaker must be the adult in the room, seeing as the MPs cannot manage to adopt this seemingly basic attribute of being an MP.