Easier to blame than fix

Open doors for homeless first

IT is the government’s job to ensure those in society who need shelter have it available. Government at all levels has failed in this in Hobart. Tasmania’s public housing debt could have been forgiven decades ago by the Feds. State governments could have released land for housing development and built low-cost housing years ago when the plans to boost the Tasmanian economy started to bear fruit. Certain Hobart City Council members who shall remain nameless could have voted to pass 90 per cent of hotel and multi-dwelling residential developments instead of their recorded voting history of rejecting more than 90 per cent of such proposals.

But no. It’s easier to do nothing, and then blame “greedy investors” who, actually, are usually merely people who have worked hard and invested their super retirement savings into the high-risk strategy of real estate and are merely making sure they have enough money to retire comfortably without relying on government.

Why the interest rate outrage?

WHEN the Reserve Bank cuts interest rates, if the four Big Banks don’t immediately pass on the cut in full, the whingers come out of the woodwork. If a cut is passed on in full, borrowers are the big winners, depositors are the big losers. If the cut is not immediately passed on, or only partly, borrowers are still the winners, albeit not so big, depositors are still the losers, albeit not so big. What’s the problem?

Grim story no fairytale

MISS Muffet eats her curds and whey in an “innocent” nursery rhyme. Donald Trump simply gives the Kurds away. A “Grimm” fairy story?

Please explain explanation

TO quote: “John Fitzgerald explains the invitation to ‘come down for air’ in Tasmania” (Talking Point, October 16). And the need for an explanation of what an expensive new tourism campaign is trying to say is?