Smithson: Magnitude of aged-care crisis finally dawns on election eve |
Aged housing is suddenly a red-hot state election issue with the North Adelaide Women’s and Children’s Hospital landing in party sights. But Mike Smithson says it has clearly been an impending issue since the baby boom in 1946.
Deconstructing SA’s housing crisis is shaping as a hotly contested battleground for next month’s election.
But which major party do you truly believe will make a difference, if either?
The Liberals have come out swinging with an impressive campaign launch showing that new leader Ashton Hurn looks and sounds the part by offering her ageing target audience the chance to pick up $15,000 to sell the family home.
It’s a one-off tax concession to buy your vote.
The major catch is that the over-55-year-old downsizers need to buy their next dwelling for under $1.2 million to qualify.
Labor also has the oldies in its sights.
The government is looking way beyond the next term to transform the most highly prized piece of near-city real estate into an aged care residential mecca.
But it doesn’t take a Rhodes Scholar to see the horse has probably bolted on both housing fronts.
Hurn and the Libs have a substantial credibility gap when it comes to stamp duty relief.
It was just over three months ago when Vincent Tarzia launched his fanciful concept to abolish housing stamp duty over time.
The announcement was designed to prick the ears of prospective voters who’d done their sums on real estate and gasped at this tax imposed on the privilege of buying a home.
Hurn supported it initially, as a loyal foot-soldier, but binned the Tarzia plan as he was vacating the........