Below the paywall on this page are the audiobook chapters of The Great Housing Hijack and Rigged for paid FET subscribers.
You can listen here on Substack or via your preferred podcast app (using a special paid subscriber RSS feed).
The Great Housing Hijack
Everyone claims to want affordable housing, but no one wants cheap housing.
While Australians on regular incomes dream of lower rents and prices, the housing policy debate has been hijacked, sailing further away from workable solutions.
Leading economics commentator Cameron Murray reveals how property insiders shape the housing market and its policy settings. He explains what property developers really mean when they call for more supply in order to provide affordable housing. He shows why landlords and the real estate industry resist rent controls and why the tax and first home buyer policies of the main political parties achieve little for first home buyers. The hoaxes created by the Housing Cheer Squad hide the brutal truth: for every winner in the property market, there is a loser.
‘If you’re not sure you believe the official story of why house prices and rents are so high, read this.’ — Ross Gittins
‘The only book you need to understand the giant con we have fallen for. Nobody escapes unscathed. Read it.’ — Michael Pascoe
Rigged
Rigged is a revised and updated version of the 2017 self-published book Game of Mates, written with Paul Frijters, which is now no longer available.
Australia has become one of the most unequal societies in the Western world, when just a generation ago it was one of the most equal. This is the story of how networks of Mates have come to dominate business and government, robbing ordinary Australians.
Rigged uncovers the pattern of political favours, grey gifts and information-sharing that has been allowed to build up over two decades. Drawing on extensive economic research, it exposes the Game of Mates as nothing less than cronyism on a grand scale across Australia and how we have fallen behind other countries in combating it.
‘This book will open your eyes to how Australia really works. It’s not good news, but you need to know it.’ — Ross Gittins
‘You’ll be shocked at how far the Mates have their hand in your pocket.’ — Nicholas Gruen
