Journal articles on the topic 'Mortgages, taxation'

A property tax (or millage tax) is a levy on real estate that the owner is required to pay. The tax is levied by the governing authority of the jurisdiction in which the real estate property is located; it may be paid to a national government, a federated state, a county or geographical region, or a municipality. Multiple jurisdictions may tax the same property. This is in contrast to a rent and mortgage tax, which is based on a percentage of the rent or mortgage value. There are four broad types of property: land, improvements to land (immovable man-made objects, such as buildings), personal property (movable man-made objects), and intangible property. Real property (also called real estate or realty) means the combination of land and improvements. Under a property tax system, the government requires and/or performs an appraisal of the monetary value of each property, and tax is assessed in proportion to that value. Forms of property tax used vary among countries and jurisdictions. Real property is often taxed based on its classification. Classification is the grouping of properties based on similar use. Real estate properties in different classes are taxed at different rates. Examples of different classes of property are residential, commercial, industrial and vacant real property. In Israel, for example, property tax rates are double for vacant apartments versus occupied apartments.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the pros and cons of ad valorem real estate taxation in the context of the reform of the Polish real estate taxation system. A property tax (or millage tax) is a levy on property that the owner is required to pay. The tax is levied by the governing authority of the jurisdiction in which the property is located; it may be paid to a national government, a federated state, a county or geographical region, or a municipality. Multiple jurisdictions may tax the same property. This contrasts with a rent and mortgage tax, which is based on a percentage of the rent or mortgage value. There are four broad types of property: land, improvements to land (immovable man-made objects, such as buildings), personal property (movable man-made objects), and intangible proper-ty. Real property (also called real estate or realty) means the combination of land and im-provements. Under a property tax system, the government requires and/or performs an appraisal of the monetary value of each property, and tax is assessed in proportion to that value. Forms of property tax used vary among countries and jurisdictions. Real proper-ty is often taxed based on its classification. Classification is the grouping of properties based on similar use. Properties in different classes are taxed at different rates. Examples of different classes of property are residential, commercial, industrial, and vacant real proper-ty. In Israel, for example, property tax rates are double for vacant apartments versus occu-pied apartments.

A property tax (or millage tax) is a levy on property that the owner is required to pay. The tax is levied by the governing authority of the jurisdiction in which the property is located; it may be paid to a national government, a federated state, a county or geographical region, or a municipality. Multiple jurisdictions may tax the same property. This is in contrast to a rent and mortgage tax, which is based on a percentage of the rent or mortgage value. There are four broad types of property: land, improvements to land (immovable man-made objects, such as buildings), personal property (movable man-made objects), and intangible property. Real property (also called real estate or realty) means the combination of land and improvements. Under a property tax system, the government requires and/or performs an appraisal of the monetary value of each property, and tax is assessed in proportion to that value. Forms of property tax used vary among countries and jurisdictions. Real property is often taxed based on its classification. Classification is the grouping of properties based on similar use. Properties in different classes are taxed at different rates. Examples of different classes of property are residential, commercial, industrial and vacant real property. In Israel, for example, property tax rates are double for vacant apartments versus occupied apartments. A special assessment tax is sometimes confused with property tax. These are two distinct forms of taxation: one (ad valorem tax) relies upon the fair market value of the property being taxed for justification, and the other (special assessment) relies upon a special enhancement called a "benefit" for its justification.

Modern cadastre means to integrate the registration of the real estates with the data of the other related activities such as taxation, mortgage, valuation, land-use, land cover,..etc. In Turkey cadastral technical activities were carried out by General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre until 2005. But then cadastre sustainment services were transferred to private sector according to “Law on Cadastre” technical parts of initial cadastre and according to the Law on “Licensed Engineers of Surveying and Cadastre and Offices”. In this article services of Licensed Offices of Surveying and Cadastre (LOSCs) are presented and the experiences in Adana are shared.

The article analyses the performance and profitability of the firms controlled by the River Plate Trust Group in Argentina and Uruguay from 1879 to 1960 to challenges the notion that British investments in the Southern Cone involved greater default or insolvency risks because of nationalism, expropriations, and over-taxation. Also known as Morris or Morrison group, River Plate Trust became the most important British business group in the region during the First Global Period, as it controlled a number of public utilities, mortgage and financial firms. Our case shows that the decline of British investment in mortgage and financial activities did not mark the end of this business cycle after WWI; rather, it signalled a change in the direction of capital flows. Capital outflows from host economies to Great Britain—via dividends—continued over the interwar period, with only a brief interruption between 1931 and 1934. The business cycle of British firms entered a new phase, characterized by stagnant British investments and increasing capital returns from Argentina and Uruguay to Great Britain.Moreover, British public utility firms continued to invest in the River Plate until the 1940s, because profits from the region supported the distribution of high dividends to shareholders.

A property tax (or millage tax) is a levy on property that the owner is required to pay. The tax is levied by the governing authority of the jurisdiction in which the property is located; it may be paid to a national government, a federated state, a county or geographical region, or a municipality. Multiple jurisdictions may tax the same property. This is in contrast to a rent and mortgage tax, which is based on a percentage of the rent or mortgage value. There are four broad types of property: land, improvements to land (immovable man-made objects, such as buildings), personal property (movable man-made objects), and intangible prop-erty. Real property (also called real estate or realty) means the combination of land and improvements. Under a property tax system, the government requires and/or performs an appraisal of the monetary value of each property, and tax is assessed in proportion to that value. Forms of property tax used vary among countries and jurisdictions. Real property is often taxed based on its classification. Classification is the grouping of properties based on similar use. Properties in different classes are taxed at different rates. Examples of different classes of property are residen-tial, commercial, industrial and vacant real property. A special assessment tax is sometimes confused with property tax. These are two distinct forms of taxation: one (ad valorem tax) relies upon the fair market value of the property being taxed for justification, and the other (special assessment) relies upon a special enhance-ment called a “benefit” for its justification

AbstractDespite the fact that women's rights have been increasingly defined as equal to men's in law and policy, in post-Second World War Japan women continue to be at a disadvantage in many aspects of social and economic life. Drawing from a survey of 2,205 Japanese women, this article focuses in particular on women's home ownership as a new catalyst behind increasing social stratification in Japan. The women's experiences are closely linked to Japan's institutional ‘familism’: the development of social policy that has been explicitly connected to the male-breadwinner model. We argue that a wide range of institutional and policy practices – mortgage provision, property ownership, social security and taxation and labour market mechanisms – has combined to define the housing asset status of women. We discuss the women's current housing asset portfolio, and also recent socio-economic changes that have begun to redefine their position in a home-owning society. The case of Japan – a patriarchal but shifting home-owning democracy – contributes to our understanding of the contemporary dynamics of women's interaction between family, work and housing in the institutional context.

Abstract. Successful land information management is an important issue for governments in regards to sustainable development. Reliable and comprehensive data about land and all related factors are essential for effective land policies. Various land related legal applications such as planning, taxation, property management, mortgage, and real estate investments require interoperable, extensive and realistic information about the land and real property. GIS provides greater insight into land by its capability to advance geographic analysis in different aspects. The statistical analysis capabilities of GIS increase the efficiency and accuracy of the evaluations related to land and real estate. Along with the developments of information and communication technologies, modern GIS technologies can handle large and complex data. Web-based and mobile GIS technologies provide the capability of operating and sharing local data and provide geographic analysis tools to users via the web. In this way, various mobile GIS applications can be developed in many different application areas. In this study, a mobile application titled as Smart Real Estate was developed for presenting urban real estate characteristics in different thematic groups by analysing data in different formats coming from different sources.

Abstract. With the rapid urbanization and the dynamics in land transactions, Turkish cadastre, as in many other countries, is facing challenges in the daily recording of sales, donations, taxations, and mortgages on land. Especially with the modern constructions and complex interrelationships of rights, restrictions, and responsibilities (RRR), the third dimension should not be forgotten. In this context, the design of a new cadastre data model for Turkey is essential. Inspired by this need, with this study, we aim in proposing a new cadastre model based on international standards such as Land Administration Data Model (LADM) and CityGML. LADM represents the legal and administrative aspects of the cadastral objects but does not show the semantic and 3D geometrical representation of physical cadastral objects which are required for the process of 3D cadastre. Therefore, in the paper, we propose an Application Domain Extension (ADE) for the cadastral objects that expands the integration of LADM and CityGML data model with the legal and administrative concepts defined in the Turkish Law. The study presents a detailed overview of the Turkish legal cadastre system and a proposal for its physical realization based on international standards. In addition, the developed ADE is also valuable for cadastral services undertaken by the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre (GDLRC). It could also be used as a basis of a 3D national data standard for cadastral information systems.

Formulation of the problem. The redistribution of labor results in any society is carried out through the tax system, therefore the question of morality perception of functioning of the tax system society is requires certain discussions, explanations of the existent files of consideration to the processes of socialization the tax policy in the conditions of democratic transformation of Ukrainian society. A research purpose is grounded the doctrine of choice the social reference-points of tax policy, what is coming from the modern requirements of democratic transformations in Ukraine. The object of research is the tax system of Ukraine, which constantly is founding in the stage of reformation and alterations in the process of the budgetary planning and attempts to execute the requirements of foreign investors. Methodological basis of research became the methods and principles of scientific cognition the general and special methods and receptions which are used in the process of ground the choice of social reference-points for forming of doctrine of tax policy. Including the methods of systematization and generalization are used for the analysis of the existent system of taxation in Ukraine; inductions and deductions - for the ground of construction of the social oriented doctrine of tax policy; the between disciplinary analogy - for the evaluation of indexes and taxes on which must be oriented tax politicians in the conditions of democratic transformations of society. The hypothesis of research became position that strengthening of social role of taxes is the mortgage of development the democratic society. And this is means that basic form of providing the policy of social aspiration in the state must become the tax system at a self-weighted formed. The statement of basic materials. It is well-proven that the doctrine of tax policy must assist a purposeful socio-economic forward movement on principles of balanced the interests of all members of society and systematization of tactical and strategic tasks in relation to reformation of Ukrainian tax system. By basic social reference-points in taxation must come forward: profit of physical persons, capital duties in all its material and non-material forms, differentiation of tax value-added and introduction of wide spectrum of excises. Originality and practical significance of the research. By basis the development of doctrine the tax policy is founded a public agreement, which shows by itself the set of scope rules with determination of responsibility all members of population. Such approach will allow attaining a consensus in civil society. Directions of socialization the processes of taxation are offered the applied value and allow to send community development in a democratic way, based on respect to the human, to freedom of his choice in public life and way of thinking and allow to regulate socio-economic conflicts in society. Conclusions of the research. The conducted research are allowed to formulate the row of important conclusions, in relation to the choice of concrete social reference-points, which in further will help correctly to place accents in the choice of objects and base of taxation, to mark those, which brake development of separate territories, to come in the state of repressiveness results and to create socio-economic tension in society.

Purpose This paper aims to contribute to the banking and housing market literature by proposing an alternative measure of rate of return for Islamic banks that is based on the rental rate of the property. This alternative Islamic mortgage pricing mechanism could be adopted by Islamic banks as a replacement for mortgage rates if it is found to be independent from any form of interest rates as required by Islamic law. Design/methodology/approach By investigating the short run and long run dynamics between rental price index (RPI) and the proposed Islamic Rental Rate (RR-I) and, three selected macroeconomic indicators in the UK via autoregressive distributed lag model, the authors examine the link between RPI, RR-I and the real economy. Findings The findings provide evidence that while RPI in the UK is significantly related to three leading macroeconomic variables, namely, gross domestic product (GDP), real effective exchange rate and interest rates measures, while RR-I is only impacted by changes in GDP. More importantly, the authors show that there is no short or long run dynamics between the rental rate and any form of interest rates. Research limitations/implications This paper did not attempt to investigate the impact of the physical attributes of the rental property to formalize the model describing the relationship between RPI and RR-I. Also, other macroeconomic factors like household income growth, risk, house value growth rate and taxation could be included in future models. Practical implications As Rental Rate is not linked to the macroeconomic determinants, it is therefore more stable, resilient and sustainable and, at the same time, making the financing less risky for both parties, as they are less susceptible to economic vulnerabilities. Social implications Some calculations incorporating the proposed RR-I can also be extended to the pricing of products based on other contracts such as Tawarruq, Bai Bithaman Ajil or even Murabahah for a fairer and just pricing to both the banks and customers. Originality/value The results suggest that Islamic banks should consider incorporating the proposed rental rate (RR-I) when pricing their home financing products, as this will lead to less dependence on interest rates for benchmarking. In addition, using the proposed rental rate (RR-I) reduces the exposure to the subjective evaluation by property valuators and speculative macroeconomic elements.

The article covers the theoretical and applied principles of price formation for housing within regional markets. In research process was found that the development of the regional housing market is subordinated to the action of regional development theories and general economic theories (cost and price). Among the spatial theories the influence of theories of agriculture placing and industry, central places, geographical location of economy, the theories of “growth poles”, “diffusion of innovations”, “center-periphery theory”, “city-centrality”. Economic theories are theories which actually are based on market process, formation of free market and theories of market`s processes regulation. It is proved that such theories do joint influence on pricing and the pricing mechanisms. It is proved that such theories do common influence on price formation and the pricing mechanisms. It was found, that pricing is an objective process, for determining and establishing prices within the region, which occurs primarily at regional and local level, touching individual regional market and is subjected to regulation by the state. It was established, that the formation of regional housing markets are too difficult process and are indicated by a large number of factors influencing to the processes of its formation. Through theoretical generalization, we identified six groups of factors that have a direct and indirect impact on supply and demand on the regional housing market. To the first group of factors attributed territorial housing market factors, among which are selected location of the property, infrastructure providing of this territory and ecological situation. The second group of factors includes quality characteristics of housing, among which are: construction materials; working characteristics and wearing out; architectural and planning features of the property. The third group is represented by economic factors, which include income of population, income of developers or property developers; the overall level of development of a region or settlement; investment factor; mortgage factor speculative factor and construction industry development in general. Group of demographic-settlement factors include an assessment of the demographic situation, labor market in the region, migration processes, the system of settlement and security of this area. Legislative and legal factors manifested through the state and regional policy in the housing market, housing programs, taxation processes, lending insurance and in the housing market. Social and psychological factors include behavior and preferences of consumers, price expectations, seasonality, ethnic or religious characteristics of the region. Here are presented the dynamics and confirmed differentiation in housing prices within the largest cities in Ukraine and in the city of Kyiv.

Early in 1982 CSR Limited established an Oil and Gas Division. By 1983 this Division had recruited twenty-six overseas technical personnel mainly from Canada and the United Kingdom. The Company needed to recruit overseas because the skills required were not available in Australia.During 1983 a review of the recruitment and settlement of these personnel and their families was undertaken. The objectives of this review were to:improve the Company performance in the recruitment, induction and settlement of overseas recruits and their families;increase the likely "length of stay" in Australia of overseas recruits and their families;to address specific problems faced by recruits and their families in settlement in Australia.In depth interviews were conducted with twenty-one of the twenty-six recruits and their families using a structured interview format.The analysis of the interviews results revealed that:on average it took longer for those recruited in the United Kingdom to obtain immigration "approvals" and to physically relocate than those recruited in Canada;families with previous experience in relocating adapted and coped better with the physical move and resettlement than families without previous experience.The detailed results showed further that:While there was sufficient information provided about the job and department, there was dissatisfaction with the lack of detailed information about aspects of living in Australia, particularly: taxation; housing; bank mortgage arrangements; cost of living data and medical insurance.There were gaps in the expectations that many- recruits and their families had about living in Australia, such as climate, lifestyle and housing. This was attributed to an "oversell" through glossy brochures and "word pictures".The attention given to staff and their families on arrival was seen as a positive introduction to Australia and CSR's Oil and Gas Division.The provision of initial temporary accommodation in a single apartment complex for all overseas recruits and families in Adelaide assisted greatly in the induction and settlement process. It provided a high level of support especially for wives with young children. The "welcome waggon" group together with the assistance provided by the wives of senior executives were also positive influences in the settlement process.The most positive features seen in the move to Australia were career and lifestyle opportunities. On the other hand loss of disposable income was seen as a significant negative.From the results and analysis a detailed set of recommendations and actions were developed to improve company performance in recruitment and settlement. These recommendations were implementated prior to the 1984 recruiting mission to Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.The preliminary results from the 1984 recruiting mission have resulted in:a reduction in recruiting lead time;quicker and more informed decision making by candidates and their families in accepting job offers;more professional preparation of both the recruiting teams and the company's agents overseas.

…love is queered not when we discover it to be resistant to or more than its known forms, but when we see that there is no world that admits how it actually works as a principle of living. Lauren Berlant – “Love, A Queer Feeling” As the sun beats down on a very dusty Musgrave Park, the crowd is hushed in respect for the elder addressing us. It is Pride Fair Day and we are listening to the story of how this place has been a home for queer and black people throughout Brisbane’s history. Like so many others, this park has been a place of refuge in times when Boundary Streets marked the lines aboriginal people couldn’t cross to enter the genteel heart of Brisbane’s commercial district. The street names remain today, and even if movements across territory are somewhat less constrained, a manslaughter trial taking place nearby reminds us of the surveillance aboriginal people still suffer as a result of their refusal to stay off the streets and out of sight in homes they don’t have. In the past few years, Fair Day has grown in size. It now charges an entry fee to fence out unwelcome guests, so that those who normally live here have been effectively uninvited from the party. On this sunny Saturday, we sit and talk about these things, and wonder at the number of spaces still left in this city for spontaneous, non-commercial encounters and alliances. We could hardly have known that in the course of just a few weeks, the distance separating us from others would grow even further. During the course of Brisbane’s month-long Pride celebrations in 2007, two events affected the rights agendas of both queer and black Australians. First, The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Report, Same Sex, Same Entitlements, was tabled in parliament. Second, the Federal government decided to declare a state of emergency in remote indigenous communities in the Northern Territory in response to an inquiry on the state of aboriginal child abuse. (The full title of the report is “Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle”: Little Children are Sacred, and the words are from the Arrandic languages of the Central Desert Region of the Northern Territory. The report’s front cover also explains the title in relation to traditional law of the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land.) While the latter issue has commanded the most media and intellectual attention, and will be discussed later in this piece, the timing of both reports provides an opportunity to consider the varying experiences of two particularly marginalised groups in contemporary Australia. In a period when the Liberal Party has succeeded in pitting minority claims against one another as various manifestations of “special interests” (Brett, Gregg) this essay suggests there is a case to be made for queer and black activists to join forces against wider tendencies that affect both communities. To do this I draw on the work of American critic, Lauren Berlant, who for many years has offered a unique take on debates about citizenship in the United States. Writing from a queer theory perspective, Berlant argues that the conservative political landscape in her country has succeeded in convincing people that “the intimacy of citizenship is something scarce and sacred, private and proper, and only for members of families” (Berlant Queen 2-3). The consequence of this shift is that politics moves from being a conversation conducted in the public sphere about social issues to instead resemble a form of adjudication on the conduct of others in the sphere of private life. In this way, Berlant indicates how heteronormative culture “uses cruel and mundane strategies both to promote change from non-normative populations and to deny them state, federal, and juridical supports because they are deemed morally incompetent to their own citizenship” (Berlant, Queen 19). In relation to the so-called state of emergency in the Northern Territory, coming so soon after attempts to encourage indigenous home-ownership in the same region, the compulsion to promote change from non-normative populations currently affects indigenous Australians in ways that resonate with Berlant’s argument. While her position reacts to an environment where the moral majority has a much firmer hold on the national political spectrum, in Australia these conservative forces have no need to be so eloquent—normativity is already embedded in a particular form of “ordinariness” that is the commonsense basis for public political debate (Allon, Brett and Moran). These issues take on further significance as home-ownership and aspirations towards it have gradually become synonymous with the demonstration of appropriate citizenship under the Coalition government: here, phrases like “an interest rate election” are assumed to encapsulate voter sentiment while “the mortgage belt” has emerged as the demographic most keenly wooed by precariously placed politicians. As Berlant argues elsewhere, the project of normalization that makes heterosexuality hegemonic also entails “material practices that, though not explicitly sexual, are implicated in the hierarchies of property and propriety” that secure heteronormative privilege (Berlant and Warner 548). Inhabitants of remote indigenous communities in Australia are invited to desire and enact normal homes in order to be accepted and rewarded as valuable members of the nation; meanwhile gay and lesbian couples base their claims for recognition on the adequate manifestation of normal homes. In this situation black and queer activists share an interest in elaborating forms of kinship and community that resist the limited varieties of home-building currently sanctioned and celebrated by the State. As such, I will conclude this essay with a model for this alternative process of home-building in the hope of inspiring others. Home Sweet Home Ever since the declaration of terra nullius, white Australia has had a hard time recognising homes it doesn’t consider normal. To the first settlers, indigenous people’s uncultivated land lacked meaning, their seasonal itinerancy challenged established notions of property, while their communal living and wider kinship relations confused nuclear models of procreative responsibility and ancestry. From the homes white people still call “camps” many aboriginal people were moved against their will on to “missions” which even in name invoked the goal of assimilation into mainstream society. So many years later, white people continue to maintain that their version of homemaking is the most superior, the most economically effective, the most functional, with government policy and media commentators both agreeing that “the way out of indigenous disadvantage is home ownership.”(The 1 July broadcast of the esteemed political chat show Insiders provides a representative example of this consensus view among some of the country’s most respected journalists.) In the past few months, low-interest loans have been touted as the surest route out of the shared “squalor” (Weekend Australian, June 30-July1) of communal living and the right path towards economic development in remote aboriginal communities (Karvelas, “New Deal”). As these references suggest, The Australian newspaper has been at the forefront of reporting these government initiatives in a positive light: one story from late May featured a picture of Tiwi Islander Mavis Kerinaiua watering her garden with the pet dog and sporting a Tigers Aussie Rules singlet. The headline, “Home, sweet home, for Mavis” (Wilson) was a striking example of a happy and contented black woman in her own backyard, especially given how regularly mainstream national news coverage of indigenous issues follows a script of failed aboriginal communities. In stories like these, communal land ownership is painted as the cause of dysfunction, and individual homes are crucial to “changing the culture.” Never is it mentioned that communal living arrangements clearly were functional before white settlement, were an intrinsic part of “the culture”; nor is it acknowledged that the option being offered to indigenous people is land that had already been taken away from them in one way or another. That this same land can be given back only on certain conditions—including financially rewarding those who “prove they are doing well” by cultivating their garden in recognisably right ways (Karvelas, “New Deal”)— bolsters Berlant’s claim that government rhetoric succeeds by transforming wider structural questions into matters of individual responsibility. Home ownership is the stunningly selective neoliberal interpretation of “land rights”. The very notion of private property erases the social and cultural underpinnings of communal living as a viable way of life, stigmatising any alternative forms of belonging that might form the basis for another kind of home. Little Children Are Sacred The latest advance in efforts to encourage greater individual responsibility in indigenous communities highlights child abuse as the pivotal consequence of State and Local government inaction. The innocent indigenous child provides the catalyst for a myriad of competing political positions, the most vocal of which welcomes military intervention on behalf of powerless, voiceless kids trapped in horrendous scenarios (Kervalas, “Pearson’s Passion”). In these representations, the potentially abused aboriginal child takes on “supericonicity” in public debate. In her North American context, Berlant uses this concept to explain how the unborn child figures in acrimonious arguments over abortion. The foetus has become the most mobilising image in the US political scene because: it is an image of an American, perhaps the last living American, not yet bruised by history: not yet caught up in the processes of secularisation and centralisation… This national icon is too innocent of knowledge, agency, and accountability and thus has ethical claims on the adult political agents who write laws, make culture, administer resources, control things. (Berlant, Queen 6) In Australia, the indigenous child takes on supericonicity because he or she is too young to formulate a “black armband” view of history, to have a point of view on why their circumstance happens to be so objectionable, to vote out the government that wants to survey and penetrate his or her body. The child’s very lack of agency is used as justification for the military action taken by those who write laws, make the culture that will be recognized as an appropriate performance of indigeneity, administer (at the same time as they cut) essential resources; those who, for the moment, control things. However, and although a government perspective would not recognize this, in Australia the indigenous child is always already bruised by conventional history in the sense that he or she will have trouble accessing the stories of ancestors and therefore the situation that affects his or her entry into the world. Indeed, it is precisely the extent to which the government denies its institutional culpability in inflicting wounds on aboriginal people throughout history that the indigenous child’s supericonicity is now available as a political weapon. Same-Sex: Same Entitlements A situation in which the desire for home ownership is pedagogically enforced while also being economically sanctioned takes on further dimensions when considered next to the fate of other marginalised groups in society—those for whom an appeal for acceptance and equal rights pivots on the basis of successfully performing normal homes. While indigenous Australians are encouraged to aspire for home ownership as the appropriate manifestation of responsible citizenship, the HREOC report represents a group of citizens who crave recognition for already having developed this same aspiration. In the case studies selected for the Same-Sex: Same Entitlements Report, discrimination against same-sex couples is identified in areas such as work and taxation, workers’ compensation, superannuation, social security, veterans’ entitlements and childrearing. It recommends changes to existing laws in these areas to match those that apply to de facto relationships. When launching the report, the commissioner argued that gay people suffer discrimination “simply because of whom they love”, and the report launch quotes a “self-described ‘average suburban family’” who insist “we don’t want special treatment …we just want equality” (HREOC). Such positioning exercises give some insight into Berlant’s statement that “love is a site that has perhaps not yet been queered enough” (Berlant, “Love” 433). A queer response to the report might highlight that by focussing on legal entitlements of the most material kind, little is done to challenge the wider situation in which one’s sexual relationship has the power to determine intimate possessions and decisions—whether this is buying a plane ticket, getting a loan, retiring in some comfort or finding a nice nursing home. An agenda calling for legislative changes to financial entitlement serves to reiterate rather than challenge the extent to which economically sanctioned subjectivities are tied to sexuality and normative models of home-building. A same-sex rights agenda promoting traditional notions of procreative familial attachment (the concerned parents of gay kids cited in the report, the emphasis on the children of gay couples) suggests that this movement for change relies on a heteronormative model—if this is understood as the manner in which the institutions of personal life remain “the privileged institutions of social reproduction, the accumulation and transfer of capital, and self-development” (Berlant and Warner 553). What happens to those who do not seek the same procreative path? Put another way, the same-sex entitlements discourse can be seen to demand “intelligibility” within the hegemonic understanding of love, when love currently stands as the primordial signifier and ultimate suturing device for all forms of safe, reliable and useful citizenly identity (Berlant, “Love”). In its very terminology, same-sex entitlement asks to access the benefits of normativity without challenging the ideological or economic bases for its attachment to particular living arrangements and rewards. The political agenda for same-sex rights taking shape in the Federal arena appears to have chosen its objectives carefully in order to fit existing notions of proper home building and the economic incentives that come with them. While this is understandable in a conservative political environment, a wider agenda for queer activism in and outside the home would acknowledge that safety, security and belonging are universal desires that stretch beyond material acquisitions, financial concerns and procreative activity (however important these things are). It is to the possibilities this perspective might generate that I now turn. One Size Fits Most Urban space is always a host space. The right to the city extends to those who use the city. It is not limited to property owners. (Berlant and Warner, 563) The affective charge and resonance of a concept like home allows an opportunity to consider the intimacies particular to different groups in society, at the same time as it allows contemplation of the kinds of alliances increasingly required to resist neoliberalism’s impact on personal space. On one level, this might entail publicly denouncing representations of indigenous living conditions that describe them as “squalor” as some kind of hygienic short-hand that comes at the expense of advocating infrastructure suited to the very different way of living that aboriginal kinship relations typically require. Further, as alternative cultural understandings of home face ongoing pressure to fit normative ideals, a key project for contemporary queer activism is to archive, document and publicise the varied ways people choose to live at this point in history in defiance of sanctioned arrangements (eg Gorman-Murray 2007). Rights for gay and lesbian couples and parents need not be called for in the name of equality if to do so means reproducing a logic that feeds the worst stereotypes around non-procreating queers. Such a perspective fares poorly for the many literally unproductive citizens, queer and straight alike, whose treacherous refusal to breed banishes them from the respectable suburban politics to which the current government caters. Which takes me back to the park. Later that afternoon on Fair Day, we’ve been entertained by a range of performers, including the best Tina Turner impersonator I’ll ever see. But the highlight is the festival’s special guest, Vanessa Wagner who decides to end her show with a special ceremony. Taking the role of celebrant, Vanessa invites three men on to the stage who she explains are in an ongoing, committed three-way relationship. Looking a little closer, I remember meeting these blokes at a friend’s party last Christmas Eve: I was the only girl in an apartment full of gay men in the midst of some serious partying (and who could blame them, on the eve of an event that holds dubious relevance for their preferred forms of intimacy and celebration?). The wedding takes place in front of an increasingly boisterous crowd that cannot fail to appreciate the gesture as farcically mocking the sacred bastion of gay activism—same-sex marriage. But clearly, the ceremony plays a role in consecrating the obvious desire these men have for each other, in a safe space that feels something like a home. Their relationship might be a long way from many people’s definition of normal, but it clearly operates with care, love and a will for some kind of longevity. For queer subjects, faced with a history of persecution, shame and an unequal share of a pernicious illness, this most banal of possible definitions of home has been a luxury difficult to afford. Understood in this way, queer experience is hard to compare with that of indigenous people: “The queer world is a space of entrances, exits, unsystematised lines of acquaintance, projected horizons, typifying examples, alternate routes, blockages, incommensurate geographies” (Berlant and Warner 558). In many instances, it has “required the development of kinds of intimacy that bear no necessary relation to domestic space, to kinship, to the couple form, to property, or to the nation” (ibid) in liminal and fleeting zones of improvisation like parties, parks and public toilets. In contrast, indigenous Australians’ distinct lines of ancestry, geography, and story continue through generations of kin in spite of the efforts of a colonising power to reproduce others in its own image. But in this sense, what queer and black Australians now share is the fight to live and love in more than one way, with more than one person: to extend relationships of care beyond the procreative imperative and to include land that is beyond the scope of one’s own backyard. Both indigenous and queer Australians stand to benefit from a shared project “to support forms of affective, erotic and personal living that are public in the sense of accessible, available to memory, and sustained through collective activity” (Berlant and Warner 562). To build this history is to generate an archive that is “not simply a repository” but “is also a theory of cultural relevance” (Halberstam 163). A queer politics of home respects and learns from different ways of organising love, care, affinity and responsibility to a community. This essay has been an attempt to document other ways of living that take place in the pockets of one city, to show that homes often exist where others see empty space, and that love regularly survives beyond the confines of the couple. In learning from the history of oppression experienced in the immediate territories I inhabit, I also hope it captures what it means to reckon with the ongoing knowledge of being an uninvited guest in the home of another culture, one which, through shared activism, will continue to survive much longer than this, or any other archive. References Allon, Fiona. “Home as Cultural Translation: John Howard’s Earlwood.” Communal/Plural 5 (1997): 1-25. Berlant, Lauren. The Queen of America Goes to Washington City: Essays on Sex and Citizenship. Durham: Duke University Press, 1997. ———. “Love, A Queer Feeling.” Homosexuality and Psychoanalysis. Eds. Tim Dean and Christopher Lane. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2001. 432-51. ———, and Michael Warner. “Sex in Public.” Critical Inquiry 24.2 (1998): 547-566. Brett, Judith. Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class: From Alfred Deakin to John Howard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. ———, and Anthony Moran. Ordinary People’s Politics: Australians Talk About Politics, Life and the Future of Their Country. Melbourne: Pluto Press, 2006. Gorman-Murray, Andrew. “Contesting Domestic Ideals: Queering the Australian Home.” Australian Geographer 38.2 (2007): 195-213. Gregg, Melissa. “The Importance of Being Ordinary.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 10.1 (2007): 95-104. Halberstam, Judith. In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. New York and London: NYU Press, 2005 Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. Same-Sex: Same Entitlements Report. 2007. 21 Aug. 2007 http://www.hreoc.gov.au/human_rights/samesex/report/index.html>. ———. Launch of Final Report of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s Same-Sex: Same Entitlements Inquiry (transcript). 2007. 5 July 2007 . Insiders. ABC TV. 1 July 2007. 5 July 2007 http://www.abc.net.au/insiders/content/2007/s1966728.htm>. Karvelas, Patricia. “It’s New Deal or Despair: Pearson.” The Weekend Australian 12-13 May 2007: 7. ———. “How Pearson’s Passion Moved Howard to Act.” The Australian. 23 June 2007. 5 July 2007 http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21952951-5013172,00.html>. Northern Territory Government Inquiry Report into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse. Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle: Little Children Are Sacred. 2007. 5 July 2007 http://www.nt.gov.au/dcm/inquirysaac/pdf/bipacsa_final_report.pdf>. Wilson, Ashleigh. “Home, Sweet Home, for Mavis.” The Weekend Australian 12-13 May 2007: 7. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Gregg, Melissa. "Normal Homes." M/C Journal 10.4 (2007). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0708/02-gregg.php>. APA Style Gregg, M. (Aug. 2007) "Normal Homes," M/C Journal, 10(4). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0708/02-gregg.php>.