Australian taxpayers will contribute $100 million to improve the main road leading to Anthony Albanese’s new $4.3 million waterfront mansion.
Albanese and his fiancée Jodie Haydon bought the four-bedroom house in Copacabana, on the New South Wales Central Coast, before the couple’s wedding.
The timing of the purchase has been criticized as politically tone-deaf, coming amid a housing shortage driving prices to record levels and a general cost-of-living crisis.
Sky News presenter Sharri Markson also asked Albanese if he was planning to buy a house in the area when he announced the taxpayer-funded upgrade of Avoca Drive, the Central Coast’s main road.
It initially pledged $30 million for the project during the 2022 federal election campaign, but in February 2023 it increased funding by another $70 million, bringing the total to $100 million.
Construction on Avoca Drive is expected to begin in mid-2025.
Avoca Drive is the main road Albanese would use to travel between Sydney and his new home.
Albanese and his fiancée Jodie Haydon (pictured) bought the multimillion-dollar clifftop home in Copacabana on the New South Wales Central Coast as their retirement home.
State Labor MPs have criticized First Minister Anthony Albanese for purchasing a $4.3 million house, with many claiming it was a “stupid moment” and showed his lack of social understanding.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said the funding for the road had no connection with the purchase of the house.
“The Albanian government has provided record funding for road infrastructure to ensure Australians around the world have better roads to drive on,” he said.
The purchase of the property has angered some Labor MPs who say it will be damaging to the party electorally.
“It shows their lack of political and social understanding of what people are experiencing, particularly in western Sydney,” one MP told the Daily Telegraph.
Another MP said the “stupid” timing before next year’s election indicated Albanese had “already retired” and was “already thinking about what’s next”.
Leading Australian polling analyst Kos Samaras said Albanese was jeopardizing the support of crucial constituencies by flaunting his wealth at a time when increasing numbers of Australians were struggling to get ahead.
“In a country where everything now revolves around which tribe you belong to, he has simply projected very clearly that the low-income constituencies that the Labor Party depends on are not part of his tribe,” Mr Samaras said.
Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather, who previously exchanged harsh words with the Prime Minister over his property portfolio, said the purchase of the luxury home represented deep housing problems.
“Labor and the Liberals have created a housing system where a real estate investor can buy a $4.3 million waterfront home, while millions of people can’t even find an affordable rental, much less least buy a house of your own,” said Mr. Chandler-Mather.
Albanese said his government was trying to alleviate the housing shortage.
“What I’m focused on is delivering more homes to Australians,” he said in Hobart on Wednesday.
“This is about helping 40,000 Australians own their own home and I can’t understand why the Liberals, Nationals or Greens don’t vote for it.”
The government has tried to get parliament through policies allowing first-home buyers to have a lower deposit on a property, but the coalition and the Greens have blocked this in the Senate.
The next federal election will be held in May and house prices and food inflation will dominate the campaign.