I spoke to my younger brother today to learn that last night he had his drink spiked at Bubble.

Yes I know Bubble is a shit hole - but seriously, whoever the f*ck put GHB into his beer was a stupid moronic asshole and I hope they die in a vat of boiling acid.

Fortunately - the bouncer who found him convulsing and vomiting on the dancefloor didn't just dump him on the road across from the club (as I and friends have witnessed countless times before) but called an ambulance and had him hospitalised.

Again - he was fortunate enough not to have ingested enough to go into cardiac arrest., instead waking up a few hours later a little disoriented but otherwise OK.

And - the bonus was: as he hadn't taken anything else last night nor drank to excess, the doctors didn't treat him with contempt and skipped giving him the lecture about binge drinking or recreational drugs.


Unfortunately - he doesn't have much memory of anyone hanging around waiting for him to drop.

I want to find the f*cker who thought it was worth it for the $60 in my brother's wallet and give them a barbed-wire enema.

AUSTRALIA'S rental vacancy rate has fallen to the lowest level in almost 40 years, with pressure mounting on the Federal Government to address housing affordability in the May 8 budget.

Figures from the federal Treasury show the rental vacancy rate fell to 1.36 per cent in the December quarter — the lowest since the series began in 1969.

But the sharemarket boom has helped Australia's private-sector wealth reach record highs in the December quarter. Private-sector wealth has hit a record $7.7 trillion, up from $7.3 trillion in the September quarter.

Commsec's analysis of the Treasury figures shows that per capita wealth increased by over $18,000 in just three months to stand at almost $372,000 per person at the end of 2006. In contrast to wealth, private-sector debt fell by 0.2 per cent in the December quarter to $502.4 billion. Over the past five years, wealth has risen by 96.3 per cent and, over the past decade, a staggering 184 per cent — the biggest gain for an equivalent period on record.

As the gap between low-income and high-income earners continues to grow, the Federal Government is being urged to tackle housing affordability. Economists say one measure it may consider as part of a budget announcement is increasing the first home owners grant. "The risk is that the super-tight rental market proves to be an example of market failure, requiring policy changes by the Government to boost the stock of housing," says Commsec chief equities economist Craig James, commenting on the Treasury figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday.

Welfare associations, community housing groups and the Housing Industry Association have been lobbying Canberra to introduce policies aimed at improving housing affordability such as better tax incentives and more social housing.

But federal Treasurer Peter Costello has repeatedly argued that the issue is one for state governments to address by cutting stamp duties and other property levies and charges.

Mr James said the problem required action from both state and federal leaders. He said the Federal Government may announce a housing affordability package in the budget, which could involve increasing the first home buyers grant and improving tax incentives for greater investment in property. But he said "governments can't just give first home buyers extra dollars because it bids up the price of property".

Treasury secretary Ken Henry recently warned the Government against big budget spending because of the inflationary effects. But ANZ chief economist Saul Eslake said it was highly likely the Government would release "bad policies" to try to win votes. He said measures such as increasing the $7000 first home owners grant, would simply result in higher house prices rather than improve affordability.

"Anything that allows Australians to buy more expensive houses results in more expensive houses," he said.

"But there's no better way to induce voters to vote for you than to give them cash."

Richards: I snorted dad's ashes