I WANTED TO BUILD A HOUSE So I saved up for ten years and bought a vacant block of land. Then paid $50,000 in stamp duty. And another $28,000 in mortgage repayments whilst waiting to get planning approval. For some reasons it took council 18 months to decide whether to let me build a house on the land that I owned. Which is in a residential zone, by the way. At first they said my fence was too green. Then my windows were too low. Then we needed to do a bushfire survey. Then I had to get an ecology report. Then I had to redesign the whole thing because they wouldn’t let me pull a tree down. They promised the redesign would get approved. But then they said I needed to consult with the local aboriginal tribe. So I did that, and the aboriginals said my land was on sacred ground. So now I’m not allowed to build there at all. And I have to pay the aboriginals rent, plus a Sacred Site Maintenance Levy. I try to sell the land, but nobody will buy it. Interest rates double and I can’t afford to hold the land. I skip a meal, and then another. The aboriginals put my rent up. Council puts my rates up. I get charged a Vacancy Levy because I’ve failed to build a house on the land. My job fires me because having too many white men working there is ‘bad for optics’. Now I’m homeless and I have to camp on my vacant land. But apparently this is illegal and the council fines me. Sleeping outside makes me sick so I go to hospital. The doctor says I need urgent treatment. I can’t afford the treatment, and my Medicare Levy doesn’t cover it for some reason. They offer me a Euthanasia Care Package as an alternative. And I feel grateful to live in a first world nation with multiple health care options. As they’re providing me with treatment, I wonder if the remining equity in my land will be enough to cover my Death Tax.