What would Ben Chifley say? Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s bizarre timing in buying an oceanfront mansion during a national cost of living and housing crisis has been the focus of a concerted media pile-on in the last week, but the hypocrisy of the other parties also needs to be called out.
Mr Albanese has said, quite rightly, that he and his partner are entitled to buy a house wherever and whenever they want. It’s not like he’s flying off to Hawaii during a bushfire emergency. But Albo must be aware that this was manna from heaven for his many enemies, unless the prime ministerial hubris has got to the boy from public housing now.
The optics are a disaster on several levels. First, the PM’s new $4.3m pad at Copacabana on the Central Coast of NSW is a short drive away from Wamberal Beach, where a number of beachfront houses fell into the sea recently as a result of global-warming accelerated storms. Wouldn’t it be safer to choose somewhere higher, like Mt Ararat?
Second, why does anyone need a fancy new house to live in when they already have two lavish taxpayer-funded properties in Sydney and Canberra? Is Albo expecting to retire, or lose his job in the near future?
Third, has he forgotten there’s about to be an election in Queensland, and Premier Steven Miles needs all the help he can get? Queensland is vital to Labor federally too, but the Copacabana story broke on the same day Mr Albanese announced a major housing plan for the state, entirely overshadowing that news.
Also, will Toto be safe with that cliff?
Dutts the champion of the common man
Labor members in marginal seats may have been blindsided by their leader’s real estate news, but the well-known battler’s champion Peter Dutton appears to have been preparing for this moment or something like it for a while, having divested or otherwise squirrelled away from public view his once substantial real estate portfolio.
There are a few ways to hide wealth if you’re an Australian politician (usually involving family members), but according to the latest public register of members’ interests, Dutton’s only current real estate holdings are a residence/farm in Dayboro, and an investment property shared with his wife. This penthouse in Brisbane’s CBD was actually sold in 2022 for $3.47 million, earning a profit of $770,000 after being owned for only twelve months.
In 2019, Peter Dutton publicly declared three residential investment properties, as well as a residence in Camp Mountain, and multiple child care business investments. Prior to that he owned additional investment properties in places as far afield as Canberra and Palm Beach.
It’s a common story among the current crop of federal politicians, with only twelve of the 227 sitting MPs and senators declaring no property ownership at all. Most of them own multiple investment properties, with Labor’s Michelle Ananda-Ralph and the LNP’s Karen Andrews each declaring seven properties in recent statements.
To put this in context, fewer than 20,000 people in Australia own a stake in six or more rental investments.
Big bucks
In spite of clear conflicts of interest between their public and private roles, politicians at all levels of government have benefited substantially from the property boom, and the associated capital gains. When they make decisions about things like negative gearing, and franking credits, they are inevitably compromised.
The Greens’ housing spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather, is a renter, along with his party colleague Stephen Bates, but they are rarities in the 2024 parliament.
With conviction in perilously short supply, why do people choose to make a career in politics these days? Ego can’t be the only explanation. We’re often told that public representatives could earn more in the private sector, with less public scrutiny, but that’s hardly an either/or matter these days, thanks to the revolving door.
The truth is that political life is a transitory stage for many political actors in the 21st century.
The wages in public office aren’t exactly shabby either, with all federal politicians receiving pay rises in July. Although they claim to be going backward financially in real terms, the Australian prime minister now receives $607,500 a year and the opposition leader $432,250, without counting the extra lurks and perks.
These salaries are both substantially more than those received by the president of the USA or the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Is the job more difficult?
Maybe our leaders would be taken more seriously on the subject of housing, and other matters, if they were more like the former president of Uruguay, José Mujica, who had only two items on his annual wealth declaration as ruler in 2010: a 1987 Volkswagen Beetle valued at $1,800 and a 60 year old pushbike.
When Mujica was offered $1m for his vintage Beetle, he said he would donate the money to a charity which provides housing for the homeless.
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning film-maker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
