"Jovanco miners don't have the voting power house owners do. While elections are every three years governments will pander to the majority. The majority of Australians own houses or use that investment stream. While yes it would be nice for everyone to be able to afford a nice house governments want to get elected now and they do not worry about anything that is not in the now scheme of things. No government has the balls to change anything that upsets anyone. "
i agree with ALOT of this. Govts make short term oriented decisions to hold power. Large paper losses on property would see any govt of the day voted out imo. Additionally i'm not sure they understand the mal investment and structural damage they CAN do by interfering in the manner they are. Like many economists in the USA (pre-bust) the govt seems to think high housing prices are REAL WEALTH and good for the economy. They also seem to think giving preferential treatment to banks and other lending institutions, and basically creating moral hazard is also a good idea.
I disagree with the bit about the miners though. I think the Australian public by and large views them as a golden goose, hence the pressure on govt to reform the RSPT was very large, because the majority of the public supported the miners. The big miners collectively invested less than $100 million in advertising against the tax and saved tens of billions of dollars. That is INFLUENCE!!!!........not to mention a handy return on investment!!!!
