This advertisement from Kuala Lumpur shows how development companies are not only selling Australian houses in Asia but are offering Australian taxpayer-funded government grants to further entice Kuala-Lumpurans to buy here. These grants were intended to help young Australians get into the housing market but instead the developers are offering them to foreigners. The ad is for housing in the Whittlesea area of Victoria, but the reality is that the same thing is going on all over Australia.
How can politicians tell us we have a housing shortage? If we did, they could sell the houses here and not have to go to foreigners. Why is the government allowing this land way out of town to be built on at all and then sold to foreigners?
We are being taken for fools.
This ad has been sent to Matthew Guy, the Victorian Minister for Planning, and to a local federal mp. How about sending it to your MPs as well, if you feel it is wrong.
The advertisement says, "Hurry, get the AUD$13,000 Australian Government Grant." Foreign buyers can also save on stamp duty.
Whittlesea is just north of Mill Park, where wildlife activists and residents unsuccessfully tried to stop government slaughter of displaced kangaroos last year. To get to Plenty Road from the city you pass through some of the densest populations in the world, and then past endless suburbs, many of them only built within the last two to five years. Wildlife activists have deplored the fate of wildlife as the greedy developers and complicit state governments have turned a blind eye or aimed a gun. Residents have watched in horror as completely undemocratic decisions have been made to maim and mutilate the countryside, overpopulating it, rapidly increasing demand for services and resources, driving their prices beyond the reach of all but the well-off. At the same time, salaries are not increasing but job insecurity is increasing. Australians have little slack and nowhere to turn except to demand that their MPs start to represent them and stop this abuse of the system.
Whittlesea residents need to take out an ad in the Kuala Lumpur paper where this offensive ad for Whittlesea land and housing was run. The ad should politely inform Kuala Lumpurans of the situation and that Australians did not agree to have their taxes used to facilitate foreign investors making the situation worse for wildlife and for the homeless and the mortgage-burdened.
Contact your local MP and ask him/her what he is doing about this further pressure on the green wedges and on housing prices and this funelling of Australian taxes into foreign purses. Then write to candobetter.net as a comment to this article and tell us what your MP's answer was. We will publish it. Exert pressure. The situation is unacceptable. It is scandalous and has population impacts which may lead to ordinary Australians becoming destitute due to inflated power, land, and housing costs within the foreseeable future.
Comments
NIMBY (not verified)
Tue, 2012-01-24 12:00
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Evils of globalization of the housing/education market
Tigerquoll
Tue, 2012-01-24 17:11
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Is Matthew Guy corrupt?
nimby (not verified)
Wed, 2012-01-25 08:39
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Planning has descended into opportunities for developers
Jill Quirk (not verified)
Mon, 2012-01-30 08:38
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First home grants to buyers in KL
I sent the following letter to my local Federal MP. She has referred it to the State MP from whom I have not yet heard.
"It has come to my notice that the first home buyers' grant of $13,000 is being advertised in Kuala Lumpur to potential buyers of property in Australia. This grant whilst probably misconceived in its attempt to make housing more affordable in a climate of high population growth and high demand for housing, was actually intended for Australian first home buyers. I object to my taxes being used in this damaging way and would like to be reassured that either it is not true or there is some justification for this. I totally oppose government engineered high population growth through high immigration and abhor the consequent rise in property prices which lead to immense pressure on local people who are in the market for a house. I would like to add that I am well aware that the small numbers of asylum seekers who arrive on our shores have nothing to do with this issue. It is seemingly deliberately confused in the minds of the public, courtesy of the media and some politicians past and present. I would be grateful if you could let me know the true situation regarding the availability of the first home buyers' grant for non Australian residents."
Sheila Newman
Mon, 2012-01-30 13:59
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First Home Grants to KL cits
Jill Quirk (not verified)
Mon, 2012-01-30 21:35
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Home grants to KL cits continued
Tigerquoll
Mon, 2012-01-30 21:50
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Has the roaming Rudd got Big Australia agencies overseas?
Has the roaming Rudd got Big Australia agencies overseas?
Kuala Lumpur perhaps?
What about Jakarta and Ashore Reef? Perhaps the Australian Navy could do some revenue neutral charters, rather than just sending out the welcoming party?
'Adequate housing is a human right and is part of having a quality of life. However, each day 105, 000 Australians are without safe, secure and affordable housing.
Tonight half of Australia's homeless will stay with friends or family.
About 2 in every 7 will find a bed in a boarding house.
A lucky 1 in every 7 will find a bed in the homeless service system.
1 in every 7 will sleep rough on the streets of our cities and towns.'
[www.actnow.com.au]
This probably doesn't include Australian Aborigines in the outback. Unacceptable in Australia in 2011!
In Australia we have a Foreign Labor Government.
Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria 3885
Australia
Tigerquoll
Thu, 2012-02-02 10:50
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Foreign Labor Government now building Koreaville in Hobart
It's not just Whittlesea being sold to foreigners.
Forget Australia's affordable housing crisis. Now the Foreign Labor Party is building 'ParanVille' in East Hobart...
Read the following article into today's Hobart Mercury: 'ParanVille nod builds bonus'
'WORK on a $900 million Korean suburb on Hobart's Eastern Shore will start within a year after winning final planning approval yesterday.
Billed as an "integrated lifestyle, education, and residential development", ParanVille will be one of the biggest residential subdivisions developed in the state and promises to give the struggling building industry a massive boost. It is expected to attract residents from Korea, China and Japan who are keen to escape harsh northern winters and the threat of nuclear accidents, its backers said yesterday.
The 158-hectare rural site between Howrah and Rokeby approved by the Tasmanian Planning Commission will become home to more than 2000 new residents and several hundred language students and will generate up to 1000 jobs during the 10-year construction period.
It will feature a language school and residence hall for students. The site was chosen because of Tasmania's international image as a clean, green, safe and politically stable place to live and for its proximity to Hobart's airport.
Foreign Labor Premier Lara Giddings yesterday hailed it as a vote of confidence in Tasmania's new planning system.
"It should give business outside the state, and of course outside investors, some confidence to know that our planning does work and that indeed Tasmania is open for business," she said.
"This project will create jobs in the construction industry at a time when the housing industry is struggling."
Developer Paul Kim's son, Pius, said his father expected strong demand for properties at ParanVille.
"In Seoul right now it's minus 14 degrees. Climate-wise in summer it's really hot and in winter it's really cold in Korea. Tasmania has a much better climate.
"Also, there are other factors such as nuclear risks, typhoons and natural disasters.
"Koreans and Chinese visitors who come to Australia love Australia, but they especially love Tasmania."
Mr Kim said his father was delighted the local community had welcomed the project and it had now passed the final planning hurdle.
"He has been working for this project for nine years now and he is happy to see it to fruition. Almost all the construction work will be done by Tasmanians. Some parts of the planning will be done by Korean workers as well and some Korean construction techniques will be brought over by them.
"When he first came to Tasmania in 2003 there were only 30 Korean people living in Tasmania. Now officially there are about 1080 people living here and there will be more."
The Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry welcomed news of the development's final approval.
Chamber chief Robert Wallace said the decision sent a clear message to investors that Tasmania was open for business and the project investment would provide a major boost to the state economy.
"This will be a project of state significance, one that will provide a much needed boost to employment," he said.
The manager of Rokeby's Hardware Pro store Ken Mathers said he was looking forward to welcoming the new residents to the area.
"It will have to be a huge spin-off," he said. "It will be ongoing because then you'll have hundreds of well-off retired Korean people living there.
"It will be a boost for every business on the Eastern Shore for us in the short term with the construction, but in the long term it will give us access to hundreds more people."
Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria 3885
Australia
Jill Quirk (not verified)
Mon, 2012-02-06 15:14
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$13000 home grant Reply from Hon. Michael O'Brien
Australian citizen (not verified)
Mon, 2012-02-06 17:19
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Live in Australia 6 months and you get permanent residence?
Hugo watcher (not verified)
Tue, 2012-02-07 02:08
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Prof Graeme Hugo - misquoted?
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