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Sydney Morning Herald
10 hours ago
- Lifestyle
- Sydney Morning Herald
PM must begin to address his legacy - what will he leave us?
Recently, I went into the Sydney Opera House, where my partner was briefly working, for the first time in years. I had passed it, of course, travelled by on ferry, on my visits to the city in which I spent most of my youth. On such returns, there are always things you have not noticed – or perhaps forgotten. I had certainly never properly appreciated the shade of carpet in one of its bars, a gentle red that lies perfectly at the intersection of luridness, elegance and nostalgia. And I had not for years trod its inside concrete steps. The feel of those stairs, their exact width and hardness, somehow recalled me to my childhood, the bag of Minties my grandfather shared with me when he and his wife Jo took me to hear the orchestra. Staying in the CBD, I became dependent on the city's public spaces. I worked in the State Library of NSW, became accustomed to its rhythms; I spotted kookaburras with my son in the Domain. These places I know from my youth and so there was the shock, too, of just how different much of the city feels even compared to a decade ago. It feels more exciting, mostly – which also means busy. A friend told me about the squash to get onto the Metro in the morning, the aggressiveness that can come out, the simultaneously intimate and impersonal experience of being pressed against other human beings. And these things made me feel that the denser Australian cities everybody has talked about for years – a little nervously – are upon us. Of course, we don't know that this trend towards greater density will continue. It is possible, say, that the work-from-home shift is only getting started; that employers' recent push for more days in the office is merely a brief reversal, and that the fading of the importance of cities that seemed to begin during the pandemic will continue. One thing to remember is that nothing pans out quite as expected. A report in The Australian Financial Review last week suggested that work-from-home has not, as many predicted, drastically decreased the need for office space. As Challenger's chief economist told the paper, even if people only spend three days in the office, 'You still need pretty much the same amount of space.' Cafes, though, are doing awfully. What will governments do about these 'third places', neither work nor home but necessary? If commercial 'third places' are dying, will we get more parks? Some new type of hybrid space? This reminded me of one of those pandemic-era conversations – like so many now forgotten – about infrastructure created through Depression public works programs. Instead of our generation's version of ocean pools – something visionary and beautiful, both useful and communal – we got HomeBuilder. In all this I was reminded of that constant push-pull of Australian identity: the desire to mix with the 'big world' out there, to compare ourselves with the largest cities, the most powerful countries, and yet to retain whatever is unique about ourselves. Have we achieved either to our satisfaction? Is it possible to do both? This was the subtext of Anthony Albanese's trip to China last week, as it is of all prime ministerial engagements with other powers. The ever-growing rivalry between China and America reminds us of our great luck in being stuck at the bottom of the globe. Have Australians ever been more conscious than they are, right now, of the upside of isolation? And yet our public debate about foreign affairs seems driven by the linked ideas that we are more central than we are and have more control than we do. And so our news becomes dominated by questions such as when will Albanese meet Donald Trump and whether we should commit to wars that haven't happened.
The Age
10 hours ago
- Lifestyle
- The Age
PM must begin to address his legacy - what will he leave us?
Recently, I went into the Sydney Opera House, where my partner was briefly working, for the first time in years. I had passed it, of course, travelled by on ferry, on my visits to the city in which I spent most of my youth. On such returns, there are always things you have not noticed – or perhaps forgotten. I had certainly never properly appreciated the shade of carpet in one of its bars, a gentle red that lies perfectly at the intersection of luridness, elegance and nostalgia. And I had not for years trod its inside concrete steps. The feel of those stairs, their exact width and hardness, somehow recalled me to my childhood, the bag of Minties my grandfather shared with me when he and his wife Jo took me to hear the orchestra. Staying in the CBD, I became dependent on the city's public spaces. I worked in the State Library of NSW, became accustomed to its rhythms; I spotted kookaburras with my son in the Domain. These places I know from my youth and so there was the shock, too, of just how different much of the city feels even compared to a decade ago. It feels more exciting, mostly – which also means busy. A friend told me about the squash to get onto the Metro in the morning, the aggressiveness that can come out, the simultaneously intimate and impersonal experience of being pressed against other human beings. And these things made me feel that the denser Australian cities everybody has talked about for years – a little nervously – are upon us. Of course, we don't know that this trend towards greater density will continue. It is possible, say, that the work-from-home shift is only getting started; that employers' recent push for more days in the office is merely a brief reversal, and that the fading of the importance of cities that seemed to begin during the pandemic will continue. One thing to remember is that nothing pans out quite as expected. A report in The Australian Financial Review last week suggested that work-from-home has not, as many predicted, drastically decreased the need for office space. As Challenger's chief economist told the paper, even if people only spend three days in the office, 'You still need pretty much the same amount of space.' Cafes, though, are doing awfully. What will governments do about these 'third places', neither work nor home but necessary? If commercial 'third places' are dying, will we get more parks? Some new type of hybrid space? This reminded me of one of those pandemic-era conversations – like so many now forgotten – about infrastructure created through Depression public works programs. Instead of our generation's version of ocean pools – something visionary and beautiful, both useful and communal – we got HomeBuilder. In all this I was reminded of that constant push-pull of Australian identity: the desire to mix with the 'big world' out there, to compare ourselves with the largest cities, the most powerful countries, and yet to retain whatever is unique about ourselves. Have we achieved either to our satisfaction? Is it possible to do both? This was the subtext of Anthony Albanese's trip to China last week, as it is of all prime ministerial engagements with other powers. The ever-growing rivalry between China and America reminds us of our great luck in being stuck at the bottom of the globe. Have Australians ever been more conscious than they are, right now, of the upside of isolation? And yet our public debate about foreign affairs seems driven by the linked ideas that we are more central than we are and have more control than we do. And so our news becomes dominated by questions such as when will Albanese meet Donald Trump and whether we should commit to wars that haven't happened.
The Age
6 days ago
- The Age
He used to be a street kid. Now he has an apartment with a harbour view.
, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. John Howard has been known as many things since he first arrived in Kings Cross as a street kid in 1968: a nuisance, petty criminal, prisoner at large, skid-row drunk, and later the 'Car Park King' and 'Poo-Bag John'. Despite such a varied reputation, the softly spoken, well-dressed gentleman of 71 is baffled why anyone would want to interview him, let alone pay for his lunch. 'Surely, there are more interesting people?' As we settle into the window seat of the Macleay Street Bistro, he makes a few jokes about whether we have the right 'John Howard', implying the Herald must have intended to sit down with the former prime minister who shares his name. But this is no mistaken identity. As we both opt for sparkling water, I tell Howard that I first heard of him 20 years ago, when I was writing for the Herald's Domain, from a local real estate agent who talked about the guy who makes money buying car spaces and renting them out. Hippies handing out daffodils to Kings Cross pedestrians in 1969. Credit: Fairfax Howard's initial discomfort about having his photo taken is parlayed into ordering. We both want the garlic prawns, Howard has them for an entree with the pan-fried salmon for a main, and I order the French onion soup followed by the prawns as a main. Food out of the way, Howard's demeanour lights up as he describes running away from his dysfunctional childhood in Baulkham Hills in Sydney's north-west to the bright lights and chaos of Kings Cross. The Yellow House artists cooperative was at its zenith, and the streets were full of hippies, prostitutes and soldiers on leave from the Vietnam War. 'It was fun, and mad, and I didn't want to be anywhere else.' Among his first jobs was being a kitchen hand at Whisky A Go Go, and a bus boy at Chequers and the Bourbon and Beefsteak – all local landmarks. 'I was living the high life, in a low-life sort of way,' he said. 'To my mind I was racing around, having fun, trying to survive, and dreaming of buying the latest sports car and meeting the perfect girl.' But in reality he was failing at everything, he said. 'I wasn't a gangster. I was a nuisance.' Either way, the authorities began to take a keen interest. The pan-fried King Ora Salmon with courgette, asparagus and pea purée. Credit: Janie Barrett In the early 1970s, Howard fell foul of a local pimp-cum-psychopath, so he decided to skip town by stealing a car and heading for Queensland's Morton Island. The plan being to single-handedly set up a hippie commune. He made it as far as Wingham, west of Taree, before he was pulled over for throwing an empty carton of chocolate milk out the car window. A registration check upgraded the littering offence to car theft, and Howard was thrown in the local police cells. He wasn't in the cells long. Howard's slight frame meant he was able to squeeze through the food opening gap to the police courtyard where he jacked the steel wire mesh out of the brickwork and escaped. It was a successful getaway, for all of a week, before he was picked up by police, this time in Woolloomooloo stealing petrol from a car. 'Over the years I have made some poor choices,' Howard deadpans. 'I was living the high life, in a low-life sort of way.' John Howard Mental health and addiction issues didn't help, and they only worsened as he got older, even if he was oblivious to it. By 39 Howard was homeless, living in a laneway behind Central Railway Station. 'At the time I thought my problem was that I didn't have a job, but in hindsight I was drinking too much.' One pivotal day, fate intervened in the form of a taxi driver who had taken a shortcut down Howard's laneway, and saw him lying in the gutter. Presciently, he knew just what Howard needed. 'He later told me he thought I was dead, but when he realised I wasn't, he took me to a bottle shop to get a flask, and dropped me at hospital,' he said. 'That kindness of a stranger saved my life.' A series of hospital admissions followed before Howard was sent to the brain-damage unit at the now defunct Callan Park Hospital, where he remained for a year. 'It was a safe place where I didn't have to worry about feeding myself or that kind of stuff, and it took the pressure off the need to survive. I felt at home.' More crucially, Howard met like-minded people who visited patients, and who he felt understood him and what felt like to be hopeless and self-destructive. The Callan Park building complex that was once a mental hospital. Credit: Kate Geraghty That support network remains a mainstay of Howard's life. When he left Callan Park, he was handed second-hand clothes, given a 10-year disability pension and sent to live in a half-way house in Five Dock. Things were looking up. 'When I was offered a flat in a high-rise block in Redfern, I knew if I lived there I would fall back into my old ways, so I said no and approached a private housing co-op instead.' The co-op found him a pad back in Kings Cross. It wasn't just Howard's circumstances that started to improve in the 1990s. Kings Cross's seedy strip joints, and budget hotels were fast coming to the attention of high-end developers. The Harry Seidler-designed Horizon tower in Darlinghurst was the most notable of the early landmark developments, launched in 1998 and followed by Altair from now defunct architectural firm Engelen Moore in 2001, and Mirvac's IKON in 2005. And Howard went to work, channelling what was once a fervour for partying into a work ethic that bordered on the compulsive. There was the gift stall at Rozelle Markets, telemarketing for the Guide Dogs, and a long-time gig as the night manager at the budget hotel Springfield Lodge. The garlic prawns with chilli bisque are highly sought after, as an entree or main. Credit: Janie Barrett In 2000, a friend offered him one of the puppies from her poodle's litter. 'Now this was responsibility.' In the months before Howard was due to pick up his puppy, Sunny, he took to learning everything about owning a dog: how to feed them, what they eat, how to train them, where they sleep. 'In the brain damage unit, I was given a pen and paper and told to write everything down because I couldn't remember stuff,' he said. 'So if I had to catch a bus, I wrote down the number, and from that I learnt to pre-plan everything.'
Sydney Morning Herald
11-07-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Race for affordability': The Sydney suburbs where rents jumped most
Tenants are paying more for homes this year than last in most Sydney suburbs, particularly in both affluent and outer areas, putting pressure on those looking for more affordable options. Rents did fall in several suburbs, and the deepest drops for houses included some premium pockets. But these are areas which remain unreachable for many tenants looking for cost-effective housing and suburbs getting cheaper were in the minority. In some suburbs, house and unit rents recorded a double-digit surge in the 12 months to June. This included spots in the east and the south-west, Domain's latest Rent Report, published on Thursday, revealed. 'I think what we've got is a bit of affordability play now emerging, and we do have unit rents outperforming house rents … I think that is the race for affordability, and those affordable pockets in Sydney are slowly dwindling,' said Domain's chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell. Across the city, median asking rents hit fresh highs in the year to June, to $780 a week for houses and $740 a week for units. Powell said Sydney was still in a 'landlord's market,' even as the rental vacancy rate nudged a five-month high of 1.1 per cent. A balanced market is about 3 per cent. 'The rent pain is still there, but what we have got is, it's moving away from a hot rental market, and that rental growth is now slowing,' she said. House asking rents rose most in Clovelly, in the east, up 41.3 per cent in the year to June to a median $2225 a week, followed by Collaroy, on the northern beaches, up 38.5 per cent to $1800, and North Turramurra on the upper north shore rising 30.4 per cent to $1500.
The Age
11-07-2025
- Business
- The Age
‘Race for affordability': The Sydney suburbs where rents jumped most
Tenants are paying more for homes this year than last in most Sydney suburbs, particularly in both affluent and outer areas, putting pressure on those looking for more affordable options. Rents did fall in several suburbs, and the deepest drops for houses included some premium pockets. But these are areas which remain unreachable for many tenants looking for cost-effective housing and suburbs getting cheaper were in the minority. In some suburbs, house and unit rents recorded a double-digit surge in the 12 months to June. This included spots in the east and the south-west, Domain's latest Rent Report, published on Thursday, revealed. 'I think what we've got is a bit of affordability play now emerging, and we do have unit rents outperforming house rents … I think that is the race for affordability, and those affordable pockets in Sydney are slowly dwindling,' said Domain's chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell. Across the city, median asking rents hit fresh highs in the year to June, to $780 a week for houses and $740 a week for units. Powell said Sydney was still in a 'landlord's market,' even as the rental vacancy rate nudged a five-month high of 1.1 per cent. A balanced market is about 3 per cent. 'The rent pain is still there, but what we have got is, it's moving away from a hot rental market, and that rental growth is now slowing,' she said. House asking rents rose most in Clovelly, in the east, up 41.3 per cent in the year to June to a median $2225 a week, followed by Collaroy, on the northern beaches, up 38.5 per cent to $1800, and North Turramurra on the upper north shore rising 30.4 per cent to $1500.
