Just a man and his castle

This week Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his partner Jodie Haydon splurged $4.3 million on a beach home on The Central Coast.

Albanese’s most recent purchase brings the value of his growing real estate property empire to approximately $8.8 million big ones.

Now what makes this news so egregious?

Is it the timing?

Is it the optics?

Is it all of the above…and then some.

The reality is that Australia is in the midst of a recession. Next year is predicted to be even tougher as the country will finds itself in a full-blown recession.

Businesses are struggling, families are struggling. People are doing it really tough.

According to the Foodbank Australia’s 2023 Hunger Report, 3.7 million Australian households (36%) experienced moderate to severe food insecurity in the past year.

Albanese buying yet another home when he already has two taxpayer funded residences that he lives in plus an investment property, is just all sorts of wrong.

Oh, and all of this in the lead up to what is clearly shaping up to be a hotly contested election.

Growing up, we have always been sold The Australian Dream. Better yet – The Great Australian Dream. It’s this belief that in Australia, home ownership can lead to a better life, and is seen as a marker of success, wealth and security.

Think Michael Caton in the classic 1997 Australian ocker film, The Castle. “It’s not a house. It’s a home” he muses.

But the Australia of 1997 and the one we are living in today, are two vastly different worlds. Plain and simple, the chance to buy your own home and pay it off, is a reality that not every Australia will be able to afford.

This week’s paper, The Slow Erosion of the Australian Dream, shows that only 15% of Australians think that the next generation will even be able to buy their own home, without some sort of family assistance or inheritance.  

This sentiment sinks even lower in working-class areas.

This is not about criticising Albo for needing to have a roof over his head. Of course, our PM needs to have a roof over his head.

It’s about Albanese thinking that this latest move isn’t how to have an impact in the lead up to the election and the optics of it all.

In the words of the oft-quoted Darryl Kerrigan in The Castle: “Tell him he’s dreamin’”.