News today that 3.3 million Australians will be living in rental properties illustrates the fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into over affordable housing. Not only did Howard fail to address the issue, he actually made it worse.
Negative gearing on investment properties should have been scrapped long ago. It was meant to increase the supply of rental properties. Well that worked a treat. Capital gains concessions should be removed from speculative investment in family houses.
Howard’s ill-considered first home buyers scheme for millionaires created the housing boom we had to have. What have we got to show for it? Housing is now less affordable than any time in Australian history.
And this short-term, quick profit coupon clipping passes for superior economic management in this luckiest of countries.
The Dog's Bollocks 
Central State planning and market interference rarely (if ever) produce the intended results. It is merely a deceptive ploy to ensnare more and more people into the State’s menacing clutches. When housing is considered a right by the people it is demanded, at the expense of the productive class.
Ah yes, but exactly who are the members of the productive class? Is a factory worker actually producing something less a member of the productive class than one who buys and sells derivatives?
Remember when Keating tried to nix the negative gearing? Hardly surprising non-one’s been prepared to have a shot at it since then.