Frequently I heard a version of the following interview:
Interviewer: So, you went to the 2025 election promising no changes to negative gearing or capital gains… Isn’t this a broken promise?
Labor Politician: Well, it’s not up to me to pre-empt the budget but governments need to be adaptable and to do the right thing…
Interviewer: But what’s changed since the election?
Ok, at this point, the obvious point to make would be: HAVE YOU NOT NOTICED THAT THERE’S BEEN A FUCKING WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST SENDING OIL SKYROCKETING AND INFLATION THROUGH THE ROOF AND THE RISE IN INTEREST RATES JUST MAKES IT HARDER FOR FIRST HOME BUYERS…
Of course, this might be met with: “So you admit that it’s a broken promise then?”
Which would mean that the Labor politician being interviewed would either be castigated by his party for not sticking to the talking points or promoted just so that they felt more need to stick to the talking points or they’d resign from the party and create a party called: “Not One Nation But Another Better Nation”
Let’s be real for sixty fucking seconds…
Broken promises are not lies unless they were made with the full intention of breaking the promise.
This is not a comment on the current situation. It’s a general comment.
However, I have no idea whether Jim and Albo planned to get back in by telling us that they weren’t going to do what Bill Shorten promised in 2019 in order to get back in and then do what Bill Shorten promised in 2019 once they’d secured 94 seats, OR whether they only said that now that we’ve got 94 seats so let’s do what Bill Shorten promised in 2019 but whatever…
People inside the Canberra bubble like to talk about the Canberra bubble but, let’s face it, the Canberra bubble isn’t something that occupies a lot of discussion outside the Canberra bubble… I can’t remember the last time I talked to someone about the Canberra bubble and I’m someone who talks a lot about the things that people in the Canberra bubble like to talk about but I rarely use the words “Canberra bubble” and – in fact – have probably used the words more frequently in this paragraph than in my entire previous conversations…
In other words, most people just say, mm, good idea, I don’t know why they didn’t put to us before the election OR those bastards tricked us into voting for them before they sold us into slavery. I mean, nobody says, “Thank god they kept their election promise about selling into slavery even though I voted against it, but a broken promise is far worse than their policies!”
Anyway, I’ve read a lot of the material about people who say that the changes won’t allow young people to use the same tax breaks that enabled some person with 250 investment properties to take the same advantage…
I just want to see some interview with a person sleeping rough or in their car where the interviewer asks:
Are you worried that the changes to capital gains and negative gearing will prevent you from ever owning your own investment property?
re. the ‘Canberra bubble’, and the fact of probably using those two words more frequently in this essay than in any of your previous conversations, you’ve also added another first, at least to this scribbler’s recollection, that of using the word ‘fucking’ more than any other time – actually I don’t recall you ever using it, so twice in one post is significant. I get it. Being confronted by inane journalists will do a man’s head in. As will having to wade through the quagmire of weasel language, obfuscations, flowery phrasing lacking meaning, obscurantism and all the other tricks employed by those who are averse to straight speaking and blunt truths.
Journalism used to be a noble profession. It still can be. The pressures on professional scribes from employers and peers are significant, as is the temptation to favour low-hanging fruit in preference to doing the hard yards and telling stories that have meaning and mass. It’d be good to go back to hot lead, smoke-filled newsrooms, newspapermen with fedoras and tickets in the brim, fag ends drooping from their lips and a gruff no-nonsense approach to telling it how it is. Too bad, them days are gone, forever.
You’re a good writer, Rossleigh. Keep at it.
@ Rossleigh. Agreed. Somebody forgot to tell Sarah Ferguson (7.30 Report) that correcting COALition policies favouring the wealthy was good for Australian workers. Indeed, Ferguson ”forgot” to ask about how many low income Australian workers have residential property portfolios of 5+ properties so that they can claim unemployment benefits on the generated Negative Gearing (NG).
There is little doubt that the scribblers have taken the Murdochracy Kool-aid and conveniently forgotten that journalists are required to write articles that put both sides of a question ….. NOT just the COALition press release points. ABC scribblers take note!!
There is not doubt that these changes to NG and CGT are too long overdue because of the incompetence and uncaring self-serving policies of COALition politicians and governments.
There is little doubt that THE LEAST COMPETENT MANAGERS OF THE AUSTRALIAN ECONOMY ARE THE COALITION!!
Thank you Scummo for the USUKA sub debacle, Alex ”Fishnet Stockings” Downer for the NW Shelf theft of hydrogen gas from Timor Leste benefiting Woodside, your later ”employer” and Pete ”Duddo” Dutton for being only the third Australian Prime Minister to be sacked from his electorate simultaneously with his self-serving government.
Angus Taylor and Tim Wilson sound like a broken record as they scream blue murder about first homebuyers being disadvantaged by the changes to NG and CGT which is absolute nonsense.
I was speaking to a young couple before the Budget, they have been renting at $450 per week but have recently applied for and been accepted under the government’s 5% percent deposit scheme and their slab was poured last week, blocks delivered onsite on Monday (it will be rendered block) and construction is underway. Their weekly loan repayments will come in at around sixty percent of their existing rent.
Why are some people complaining, we are very fortunate in this country!
The main problem is nobody’s paying attention to what matters, all crafted and framed by MSM journalists who like to call what they do ‘news’?
You’re all so busy running around complaining about how ‘those’ people are non-productive that they are actually struggling every day and living below the poverty line, who can’t afford a roof over their heads, provide nourishment or have access to water to feed their body appropriately to remain healthy so that they can be a ‘productive’ member of society.
So many are whinging about minor selective issues that many think important, however the most important issue is how we treat our bodies and our environment, both have been bashed into submission and weak with nothing left to give.
Our abuse of the environment, the native animals and domestic animals leaves me sick to my stomach and we call ourselves civilized? There is always someone with a bigger stick willing to abuse everything for their benefit at the detriment of everything else, we are where we are because we have yet to stand up for what’s right, and we cave at the knees just like the politicians because it requires hard work.
No Rome was not built in a day, but it collapsed due to negligence.
Jesus, Mary & Joseph, when the f**k are people going to wake up?
Yes Rossleigh, well observed and written
As Sarah Ferguson (naja) frequently opts to be, her boring and continuous Broken Promise screech, was a to-be-expected example of a school-yard smug ‘gotcha’ of little relevance. It completely overwhelmed any potential for meaningful analysis and debate. Piss-poor by Ferguson and 7:30 Report and the ABC.
Crusty anchor, sinking ship.
Reporters are not asking all the Questions! They all seem to live in the same bubble as politicians.
Has any Reporter ever researched Real Estates and their roll in assisting the rise of house prices? Real Estate Agents are parasites looking for their overrated Commission.
Real Estates contribute to Australia’s inflation. Maybe they should be eligible for 2% tops, as Commission for selling properties.
My opinion is that Negative gearing and Capital Gains, plus lack of available housing are not the only problems. Greedy Real Estate Agents are a big problem, but no one is looking in their direction!