You may have read about the 'devastating housing crisis' that is gripping the country.
Apparently, in the land of boundless plains to share and universal welfare eligibility, we haven't got enough houses.
It makes sensible people wonder why we are bringing in millions more migrants when that will only make matters worse.
There are probably more than a few people out there insisting that the crisis is all the fault of greedy negative-gearing landlords with multiple properties.
It's likely a few of those critics own more than one investment property themselves.
That's the situation in the Greens political party.
The SMH reports:
The biggest property owners are Greens Treasury spokesman Nick McKim (four), deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi (four) and first-term Queensland MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown (three), while the spouse of justice spokesman David Shoebridge owns three investment properties.
They claim to be the champions of housing availability while demonstrating they are the true champions of hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy aside, doesn't it dawn on anyone spray-painting 'landlords suck' on local property, that without landlords, people won't actually have a place to rent?
That drives the conversation to public housing, but I can tell you that's not the solution. Government makes a mess of everything it does, and public housing is no different.
The cause of housing affordability problems is the red, green and black tape wrapped up in every development.
State governments are land-banking for profit and the CFMEU is gouging every high-rise apartment building - adding thousands to the cost of every residence.
Government co-ownership or finance guarantees aren't the answer either. In my opinion, taxpayers should never be on the hook for anyone else's decision to buy a home.
So what is the answer?
Like most things in a market economy, the cure for high prices is high prices.
Private enterprises see the money to be made, they enter the market and the increased supply eventually results in lower prices.
The caveat there is that we have enough skilled workers and that the market is allowed to work without undue government or union interference.
