Ed,

If you are lucky enough to still have a roof over your head, just consider how much the Black Summer bushfires and recent extreme rainfall events and extreme flooding have been exacerbated by only one degree of climate change. Is it any wonder that so many homes have been destroyed or severely damaged so that we have a shortage of available housing?

Add this pandemic into the mix with many city dwellers now becoming “sea” or “tree changers” as well as extremely low bank interest rates that now make house ownership a better investment than in the past years, not only for Australians with surplus funds to invest but also, inexplicably, for foreign investors as well.

The result is that home ownership today is at a 60 year low; 40 years ago your average house cost twice the average income. It’s now seven times the average annual income under “business as usual”. What do your children think of this aspect of “business as usual?”

And when you consider that 51% of our population are Australia’s women and that some of our women are those who are most financially-stressed, is it any wonder that  many women are sleeping rough today?

And if you listen to the experiences of Grace Tame, the Australian of the Year for 2021 or Christine Holgate, the ex-CEO of Australia Post, being a woman in Australia today can mean you are liable to be treated very shabbily.

So what can we do if we want to treat others how we would like to be treated? According to a pre-budget survey by 49 economists from the Economic Society of Australia there is a huge need for more social housing and to give a struggling Federal government an idea that would greatly assist those that during this on-going pandemic are still extremely financially-stressed, JobSeeker should be permanently boosted.

During this pandemic extremely wealthy people have greatly increased their wealth, obviously to the detriment of those in greatest need. Ordinary people are not stupid and as President Joe Biden said when he was  Obama’s Vice-President, “The powerful, the rich and the well-connected get a seat at the table while the rest of us are on the menu.”

Harry Johnson, Iluka