Finally, Kevin Rudd has indicated that the First Home Buyers grant is coming to an end,

"It's had a real effect, we're still measuring its full effect, but I think it's very important that as a community we understand that deadlines are imposed for a particular purpose," he said.

"It's had strong useful results so far, but I've got to say, that all good things must come to an end." -- Source

The property industry is already complaining, with Stockland's managing director Matthew Quinn coming out and saying "...we think that the market, the first homebuyer market, does have another six months to go before all of that underlying demand is soaked up and it will result in a rush of buyers towards the end of June" [ibid].

I'm not sure exactly what he means by "underlying demand" but I can only assume he means that an artificial lowering of the price (through low interest rates, first home buyers grants) will increase demand. Well obviously; the lower the price of any product, ceteris paribus, the greater the quantities that buyers will be willing to purchase. Add to that the constant trickery that interest groups have using on home buyers, such as: "you've just been wasting money on rent for the last 5 years, wouldn't it be nice to own your own place instead"; "it's just another, safer, form of investment!; and "interest rates are so low, plus this homebuyers grant will only be around for a while, if we keep enjoying life and decide to buy in five years, who knows how high they're going to be!" and you get more people buying homes -- younger and younger -- at the top of the credit bubble.

The government has misled, even if only indirectly, millions of people into levels of debt that they can't possibly service and even if they can, a lifetime of debt repayments. A house is not an investment. It's a consumer good that you have to upkeep. It's also a liability that you have to deal with if you lose your job. Fair enough, there may be non-economic reasons for home ownership, but if you're doing it because "house prices always go up", then it's time to consider renting instead. The government never offers you money to do intelligent things with it. As Ronald Reagan once said, the nine words you should be most afraid of in this world are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help".

Good riddance to the first home buyers grant; it was nothing more than a subsidy to the housing industry (and those related to it, building etc) at the expense of the taxpayer. It never helped the economy, it merely diverted resources from more productive means. In fact, as I mentioned earlier, I would go the other way and say it has (together with artificially low rates set by the RBA) probably resulted in many, many young Australians having a debt burden that's going to weigh them down for years to come, destroying families and lives in its wake.

If you give people money to do something, of course their going to do it. From the ABC:

The Federal Government says strong uptake of its solar hot water rebate is proof that its economic stimulus package is working.

More than 6,000 Australians have applied for the $1,600 rebate since it was introduced last month.

The Environment Minister Peter Garrett says it is good news for jobs and small businesses.

"This marks a really, really positive day for Australian industry, for the solar hot water industry, for the retailers, for the installers, for the plumbers, for the tradies, this is going to drive economic activity through the sector," he said.

"It 's environmentally friendly, it stimulates the economy and it's stimulating local jobs and local manufacturing. That's the critical thing.

"So we have positive proof that the Government's decision in the economic stimulus package to provide a non-means tested rebate for solar hot water systems is paying us immediate dividends."

Absolutely. Everyone who has applied for or installed a solar panel is benefiting immensely, along with the solar industry and all of their employees. But this was not the way to go about doing it. Mr. Garrett is missing the bigger picture: who did you steal from to pay for these rebates? What industry is now suffering or was never created because you wanted to subsidise the solar energy industry? How about you stop subsidising electricity (excuse the wikipedia reference but I'm feeling lazy: the Australian government pays $9-10bn a year keeping the electricity price down) and then maybe people would actually choose for themselves where to get their electricity?

Stop complaining about people using too much power causing outages or killing our planet. If you allow the market to determine how much individuals are willing to pay for electricity (hint: scrap the subsidies/rebates etc), in other words let the price system work, we wouldn't have power outages. The electricity companies in Australia are just one of many government institutions (water, transport are others) that actually advertise telling people not to use their product! What kind of self-respecting business goes around telling people not to buy their product?!

This is just another state band-aid on a state-caused problem at the taxpayers' expense. Wake up and smell the bacon Mr. Garrett, quit wasting our money.