Australia

It seems a good time to remember, in amongst the rhetoric of election campaigns that all parties will keep house prices where they are.

The way back to affordability is 10-20 years of marginal house price growth, to enable housing to come into line with long term trends. Fluctuations that are radical pose radical problems for politics. So they opt for the sustained. This is what I think Australia's (and others) future housing comes down to the (continued) debasement of currency through broad (stealth) taxation.

What a game.

I suspect voting preferences will swing around the late 30s quite bad :-/

A few weeks ago for uni I had to write a 750 word policy briefing based on a report of the same name by the Australia Institute, so now that I've been assessed I figured I might as well plagiarize myself a little here.

(the chart is millions of dollars for FY2024-25)

The report estimates that across federal and state/territory governments combined, Australia provided $14.9 billion in fossil fuel subsidies during FY2024-25. These were categorized as “wholly”, “primarily”, or “partly” dedicated to fossil fuel industries. Health and environmental effects / costs were not considered.

Total expenditure is dominated by federal subsidies of $12.5 billion (83.6% of all subsidies), with federal subsidies overwhelmingly comprised of tax concessions rather than direct spending. Federal concessions are in turn dominated by $10.2 billion for the Fuel Tax Credits Scheme (81.7% of federal subsidies) – the 16th most expensive item in the year’s budget – and $1.7 billion for concessional tax rates for aviation fuel usage (13.6% of federal subsidies). Essentially all (99.5%) federal subsidies are categorized as “wholly” dedicated to fossil fuel industries.

State/territory subsidies comprise mostly of Queensland’s $1.8 billion (75.2% of state/territory subsidies), split across spending of $0.8 billion (34.2% of state/territory subsidies) and concessions of $1 billion (41% of state/territory subsidies). Contrasting federal subsidies, state/territory subsidies are a broader mix of “wholly”, “primarily”, and “partly” categorized subsidies and are less concentrated.

Total subsidies have been trending upwards and are projected to continue to rise, largely due to increasing fuel expenditure causing commensurate increases in related tax concessions. The report concludes that “Australia is not taking serious action on climate change” and suggests that “cutting fossil fuel subsidies would not only help achieve genuine reductions in emissions, but would save money that could be spent on public services”.

One part of the report I didn't love was their methodology in how they categorized "wholly" etc, as even RMIT ABC Fact Check called a similar claim "overblown" in 2022 (the beneficiaries of those subsidies is rarely "wholly" the fossil fuel industry as a layperson would understand the term in normal conversation).

The most interesting thing I learnt in my background research outside of the report is that the revenue from the fuel excise -- the counterpart of the majority subsidy, federal tax concessions via the fuel tax credits scheme -- is expected by the PBO to be "effectively zero" by 2050 even though the cost of the tax concessions is expected to continue rising.

I've also infodumped some more notes about this here in a pretty unpolished form, but you shouldn't read that because I'm self-conscious and having an existential crisis over the fact I've publicly published something on a topic I'm far from an expert on.

Nuclear submarines will allow Australia to project maritime power far from our shores. This is critical for an island nation heavily dependent on trade by sea.

This is a counterpiece to Security without submarines: the military strategy Australia should pursue instead of AUKUS, which was published (and posted here) about a week ago.

Our energy system is evolving at breakneck speed. Here we look at how our power grid works, what more renewables mean for energy prices, how nuclear fits into the picture, and how we might build a grid fit for the future.

From the first world war to the invasion of Iraq, left-wing soldiers have questioned our involvement in wars. Yet we rarely hear these dissenting veteran’s voices.

De-paywalled archive: https://archive.is/aaC2D

Google Drive link for this year's booklet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z71OI0fDwLIT4e7LzjhKhBXpTy7jrF2c/view

Google Drive link for last year's booklet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FzMIZo-GZLtrakJKkdITx5zhzRSvnPeK/view

🤣 Literally bumpkins

Photographer: @Roentare@mastodon.social

Good afternoon, #mastoart #mastophoto #mastodon #easter #eastermonday

This is #Fotomontag #photomonday #fotografie #photography

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@Roentare

Original
https://roentare.zenfolio.com/p365492183/ed18aafe

"Chevron’s Gorgon gas export plant in Western Australia received the equivalent of millions of dollars in carbon credits from the federal government last year, despite increasing its emissions.

The revelation in government data last week has sparked calls for changes to the safeguard mechanism, the government policy applied to the country’s 219 largest industrial climate polluting facilities.

The safeguard mechanism was introduced under the Coalition to stop industrial emissions increasing, but was not enforced as initially promised and emissions continued to increase".

[ACF representative] "Reynolds said the Gorgon development receiving a climate windfall after increasing its emissions was an “appalling example of a gas giant being able to game the system and financially benefit from its climate-heating emissions”.

From our coffee addiction to a weekend pub tradition, some of the simple pleasures many Australians have taken for granted now feel like luxuries. But if patrons can no longer afford to visit the pubs and cafes we love, there may be something bigger at stake.

The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service is seeking community feedback on proposed changes to camping in NSW national parks and reserves.

Proposed changes include:

• the introduction of consistent state-wide camping fees simplified bookings to deliver fairer camping experiences for national park visitors
• improved management of persistent campground issues such as people booking space and not cancelling or turning up.

Further community feedback will help the NSW Government to decide on next steps and whether proposed changes are adopted and implemented.

Please read the consultation paper outlining details of the proposal and share your feedback by 11.59pm on Sunday 25 May 2025.

As an aside to this article, should we have a community called 'safe as houses?'

So with a housing focus, not only Australian housing specific, so including the Kiwis, Canadians, USians, Japanese etc...