LETTER: The real architects of our current predicaments

DEAR News Of The Area,

I WRITE in response to Peter Williams (NOTA, 03/07/2026).

First of all, One Nation has not replaced the ‘alliance’ Mr Williams speaks of. There is no alliance, and it has not replaced a stand-alone Labor Government.

There have certainly been a substantial number of defectors from the Liberal and National parties.

Secondly, while there is a housing affordability crisis, it is not substantially because of immigration but a complex result of past housing investment decisions including selling off public housing in the belief that relying on the “profit motive” would somehow cater for the housing needs.

The former LNP government under John Howard that created the investment tax concessions made housing become an easy-make-money investment even to the point that an empty house with these tax concessions was a profitable decision.

As well, in this age of tourism, Airbnb and the like have seen many houses become short-term stays. Add to that the rise in split families, one family then requires two houses. None of these causes is of Labor’s doing.

Third, when one considers the Senate investigations into the big consultancy firms and their apparent unethical use of information and the consequent public revelation of the huge government payments to them, it would seem a better idea to have public servants carry out that work and not use these private firms.

Fourth, the hype around bulldozers and precious farming land is a dissenters’ clutch at straws given that just the Hunter Valley coal mining has already consumed more rural land than is required for the transmission system. The wind turbines and solar farms can still accommodate productive grazing.

Last, but not least, is Mr Williams’ claim that “it should be no surprise to any intelligent and well-informed person that many people are now supporting One Nation”  begs the question of from where this information is gleaned.

It is also a spurious and smug claim of Mr Williams’ to preface his assertions about them equating with a level of intelligence.

Lesley Forbes,

Kew.