Tyre dump risk
THE Andrews government needs to listen to the Stawell community and take action on the Stawell tyre dump. I recently looked at the potential environmental impacts of the site with Shadow Environment Minister Brad Battin and presented a petition to state parliament containing nearly 1000 signatures from Stawell locals calling on the government to urgently complete all outstanding administrative work and approvals currently holding the removal of the tyres back.
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An overwhelming section of the community wants the government to get out of the way so that work on removing the tyres can begin. The people of Stawell have spoken in their droves. The Andrews government needs to get on with the job and allow the tyre recycling process to start. The Stawell Used Tyre Corp is ready and waiting for the green light to start recycling these tyres, instead they continue to be mucked around by an incompetent government.
LOUISE STALEY
Member for Ripon
Creative policy
I BELIEVE that a society remains stable when people feel that there is opportunity to improve from one generation to the next.
I saw this in China, when a farmer ploughing his field beamed with pride and told me how his children were successful and had a better life, a better job and a better home than he’d had. His happiness was directly linked to the success of his children. Across diverse cultures and faiths, the desire to see children prosper is universal.
The world now seems more uncertain and our problems more complex. There is growing insecurity in the job market – a job for life now seems to belong to a bygone era, while the great Australian dream of home ownership is increasingly out of the reach of our younger people.
I’ve been considering these things and how to develop policy that addresses them. It should be a concern to the whole country that hardworking, young Australians are struggling to buy their first home, as they compete with investors and house prices continue to soar. Regional Australia can play a part in the solution but we need to ensure there are appropriate employment opportunities and community infrastructure to attract and support growing populations in the regions. The Nationals are committed to addressing this and many projects are already underway. However, I believe we need a more innovative approach.
During the Global Financial Crisis, Australian banks came to the Commonwealth government with requests for us to be their guarantor. The government supported the banks but we didn’t ask enough of the banks, in return for the support we gave.
In many towns, weekly house rental payments are equal to that of the cost of a 25-year purchase repayment plan.
If an individual or couple can demonstrate three years of perfect rental history, it stands to reason that it could be considered as evidence of their capacity to service loan repayments on a home at a similar rate.
In return for government backing, policy could be developed that requires banks to remove the demand for a deposit for those first home buyers with a proven rental record. This simple change would assist many young Australians to achieve home ownership. As things stand, young people are paying ever larger rents while minimum deposits are also increasing, meaning the ability to reach a starting point is slipping further out of reach. The manner in which the current settings are framed, where housing investors are favoured over first time purchasers, is neither good for our country economically or socially.
Creative policy around government backed bonds and other measures must be developed to return balance to our housing market, but adopting rental history in lieu of deposit is surely a worthy place to begin the conversation.
ANDREW BROAD
Member for Mallee