One language among many

About the author

Lia Hills

Lia Hills is an award-winning poet, novelist and translator, born and raised in Aotearoa (New Zealand). She is the author of the novels The...

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Non-fictionThe Australian housing market is a wealth-generating machine, not a home-generating machine. So much is wrong with the current situation. No doubt you see it too; everybody seems to on some level. That’s why we keep hearing about the ‘Australian housing crisis’. I can see it, and I proudly consider myself an old-school capitalist, with a preference for free enterprise, fair competition, private property rights and the chance to make an occasional profit. We now find ourselves with a de facto caste system in Australia: the home owners relative to the home renters. Both groups need homes, but there is a marked wealth division between those collecting passive income on houses they own and those living solely on direct income who are forever chasing a rising market.

Blackheath mating rituals

Poetry Clouds ripple, sunshine splashes, a white dove tests its wings. Bella and Houdini are hanging clothes on the line of the landlord when flirtation greets them: the...

Buy, recycle, repeat

Non-fiction THE TIP SHOP opens at 10 am every Thursday. By 9.50 am there’s a line at the gate at least ten people deep. There’s...