Your say: week beginning October 27

Every day, we publish a selection of your emails in our newsletter. We’d love to hear from you, you can email us at yoursay@theconversation.edu.au.

Monday October 27

Not much love for negative gearing

“I absolutely agree with others on negative gearing. It is so damned obvious. And if it weren’t for the wealthy investors in our country who conveniently ignore the housing crisis, something would be done to get rid of this elephant in the room. Negative gearing feeds the wealthy and deprives the average worker from ever owning their own home. Come on politicians; listen to common sense and give the younger generation a chance to find affordable housing.”

Jennie Clarke

Crime capital?

“The article on Melbourne being regarded as the crime capital looks at the overall crime rate, but that is not what people mean when they say there is a crime wave. They are referring specifically to knife and machete use, home invasions, store theft, carjacking, car theft, high speed dangerous driving to avoid police pursuit and tobacco war fires. Have these increased to wave proportions?”

Graham Pilkington

Lisztomania

“I am a great great granddaughter of Franz Liszt. His effect on people as he played has been widely written about. It was when he played his own compositions in concerts that resulted in huge emotional responses from his audiences. Not just women. Men would shout, call for encores and loudly stamp their feet. Maybe Liszt did capitalise on his popularity, but in the end it was his brilliance both in composition and playing that stood out and brought them all to their feet.”

Name withheld

Tuesday October 28

Not so negative (gearing)

“Stop wasting oxygen and ink on inane comments about negative gearing (above). I understand the frustration caused by the housing shortage but singling out housing rental businesses for more onerous tax treatment will not increase housing supply. There are many, many steps we can be taking to increase supply and make housing more affordable. Bring on some real discussion to prompt some actual progress.”

Gundars Simsons

Helping family

“As a Greens member I’m opposed to the idea of negative gearing but when my husband and I arrived in Sydney and found a house, it seemed like it could help us create homes for our kids later. It certainly has helped them. At the moment I am renting out my old house to struggling families for a very fair rent and may be pushed to sell it in order to help my son buy. I worry about where the young family will find a pool and garden for so little if I have to sell to help pay millions of dollars for anywhere my family wants to live.”

Liz Thornton

Legislation limits

“The Your Say letter about negative gearing got me thinking about the life of legislation. It’s brought in to deal with a situation. Once that situation no longer exists, the legislation needs to be repealed or amended to fit the current circumstance, surely?”

Peter Horler

Wednesday October 29

Biodiversity

“In the context of the current debate over reforms to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, it would be fascinating to hear the Liberal and National parties define biodiversity and what it means to them and their constituents. What is at stake in this discourse is the continued survival of the other species with which we share this continent. How can we let politicians arrogate to themselves the right to determine the fate of our precious natural world? And what amount of economic gain will compensate us for its irreparable loss?”

Kate Tempany, Preston VIC

A curious question

“It would be interesting to know which company demolished the East Wing of the White House and how much they were paid. Who owns the company? Which company is going to build the tacky football-pitch-size ballroom and is Trump expecting to have big balls?”

Steve Bentley, Camira QLD

Free republishing

“I know your policy is that articles are free and can be republished. I’ve always assumed that meant sending to friends, posting on Facebook etc. A few times recently, I’ve noticed Crikey using your articles, the most recent the article on the young Australians inequity. You can’t read the full article unless you subscribe (which I don’t) so I’m not sure if your article is just republished in full with Crikey taking the credit, or if it is appropriately acknowledged. Is this really fair use? As a donor to The Conversation, it looks like I’m also partly supporting Crikey (which I don’t mind, providing you don’t mind either).”

Graeme Worth

ED: Keen eye, Graeme! We often spot our articles in Australian media (ABC, Guardian, SBS to name a few) and across the world. Our mission is to get good quality information to the widest possible audience, wherever they are, so we don’t mind at all.

Thursday October 30

Pharmaceutical advertising

“I heartily disagree with your four nay-saying experts on health advertising. Having had weight issues, I feel that had I had that message earlier, I may have improved my health, including chronic back pain, much sooner.”

Edwin Daly

Snowy insight

“Thanks to Andrew Blakers and team for putting Snowy 2.0 in perspective. I wondered when it was announced whether it would be a white elephant, but I figured it would be Turnbull’s legacy. It takes longer to build large-scale pumped storage than to install renewables farms. So start building the pumped storage first. Perhaps we are installing lots of batteries because we waited too long then said ‘oops, we need storage to prevent renewables curtailment’. Yet to be publicly realised perhaps is that a large proportion of the energy stored in Snowy 2.0 will be insurance stock. Very important, rarely used.”

Julian Lawrence, Karana Downs QLD

Passkey lockout

“The article about the difference between passwords and passkeys was very informative but didn’t explain what happens when you lose the device holding your passkeys, or get a new device. My phone was recently away for 2 weeks being fixed and I couldn’t get into any apps or websites that use passkeys. It’s also unclear if you can create a passkey for the same app or website on multiple devices (phone, tablet, computer) or can you only do it on one device. Passkeys might be more secure but it seems there’s a real risk of being locked out.”

Anthony McPhee