Far be it from me to defend Albo for the treatment he is receiving from one of his investment property tenants, but the guy now bashing the Prime Minister is clearly a whiner.
The fact that he has also always been a Labor voter is simply a coincidence.
Reports emerged that the Prime Minister approved an eviction notice for Jim Flanagan, the tenant of a three-bedroom investment property in Dulwich Hill that Albo bought in 2015 for $1.175 million.
Today it is probably worth more than $2 million and I assume the Prime Minister wants to reap the financial rewards. The booming property market may be a political problem for the Government, but when property investments dominate your financial portfolio, it has its rewards.
Flanagan has lived in the property Albo owns for more than four years and has previously praised the Prime Minister as a fantastic landlord.
Jim Flanagan (pictured) has enjoyed a reduced rent courtesy of the Prime Minister, but is outraged by Albo’s plans to sell the property and kick him out.
The bar owner and musician (pictured) is unhappy that the Prime Minister is evicting him.
Of course he did: When the pandemic hit, the then-opposition leader reduced Flanagan and his then-partner’s rent from $900 to $680, and hasn’t raised it once since.
Not even once!
Whether that move by Albo was a political turn or not (he was widely praised for his actions at the time) doesn’t really matter. The real-world impact was that Albo helped his tenant, just as he asked other landlords to do.
The property now earns half what it could and has been well below the average rent in the Dulwich Hill area for years.
According to my preliminary calculations, Albo has saved Mr Flanagan at least $60,000 over the years on what the market rental of that property could have earned the Prime Minister as part of his investment portfolio.
If Flanagan couldn’t afford those raises, he would have been forced to move years ago. It is now clear that he has become accustomed to enjoying the lifestyle of a property for which he pays rent compared to what he should charge her.
Albo has been more than generous with this guy.
However, when the Prime Minister’s personal circumstances changed – he has to finance a lavish wedding and find a new marital home for when he and his fiancée Jodie Haydon get married and enjoy post-political life – the lucky tenant began badmouthing the Prime Minister. Prime Minister. in the media.
Talk about self-entitled!
Flanagan, the small businessman who owns a bar, says he is having a hard time and felt the need to “denounce” Albo’s actions.
Yell what, exactly?
The Prime Minister has the right to sell his own property. He has rented it for years well below market value. He reduced the rent by 25 percent when the pandemic hit and kept it that way ever since. He gave this guy 90 days notice when he legally only had to provide a fraction of that amount of time.
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
Pictured is the restaurant Jim Flanagan owned with his former partner when he began renting one of the Prime Minister’s investment properties.
Flanagan owned The Sausage Factory with his then partner before moving into running a bar.
Would Mr. Flanagan give free drinks to patrons of his bar who come in and tell him they are having a bad time? I really doubt it.
He’s the kind of guy you know was in a band in his youth, probably had long hair too, all before he “got serious” and opened a bar.
The only thing I will say after having defended Albo in this case is that you reap what you sow: the modern Labor Party is leaning towards the hand-out mentality that fueled this guy’s resentment at being assaulted by the reality of the change of circumstances of the prime minister.
This is what happens when that attitude permeates society.
Hopefully Albo’s experience of dealing with Mr Flanagan’s authoritarian attitude will give him pause for thought the next time he makes a public policy decision or comment addressing this growing problem in Australian society.