Family housing fix

AS the prospect of affordable housing for young Australians becomes ever more remote, it is parents and grandparents who may be able to do something about it.

Most have houses on quarter-acre blocks and depending on how the house is placed, there is room to extend or build an apartment or another house. The land costs nothing and the infrastructure is in place. Also, there is no need for a new subdivision. There may also be benefits as the parents get older. The stumbling blocks are the antiquated one-size-fits-all planning laws, which seem largely designed to oppose things rather than to facilitate them. The world is changing faster than

Evolving language

I ACCEPT A. Francis’s gracious eight out of 10 (Letters, July 19) for my letter about Malcolm Turnbull’s solecism, given my presumed error in indicating the possessive. My first instinct was to use the form favoured by A. Francis, but I resisted because I could not recall seeing or hearing that usage for decades.

An important thing to remember about English is that it is a living thing with many national and regional manifestations changing over time. Those who hold

Legal experience

JIM Heys says Peter Dutton does not understand the law (Letters, July 20). I would suggest that as Dutton served as a police detective for nine years, including working with the National Crime Authority, it is reasonable to believe his comprehension of the legal system may be at least equal to, if not superior to, that of Mr Heys.