Firebrand Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather has called out wealthy Labor MP Andrew Charlton over his burgeoning $42 million property portfolio.
As aspirational voters are increasingly priced out of the housing market, the Greens’ housing spokesperson says ‘people have a right to be angry’ over latest $12 million purchase Member for Parramatta.
Dr Charlton and his wife Phoebe Arcus, a lawyer, recently added the luxurious four-bedroom Palm Beach mansion, named ‘La Palma’, to their extensive range of homes.
It comes just three years after he purchased a $16.1 million Fintry mansion in Bellevue Hill, in Sydney’s east, in November 2020. Dr Charlton also has a terrace in plush Woollahra, also in the east from the city.
He lives in a $2 million penthouse apartment in Parramatta, where he represents struggling fighters in a key marginal seat in Sydney’s west that Labor will be desperate to retain at the next election.
Mr Chandler-Mather said on Wednesday: “A single Labor MP has a property portfolio worth $42 million, joining 75 per cent of Labor MPs who own investment properties.
“People have a right to be angry about Labor’s refusal to scrap tax allowances for property investors, which deprive millions of renters of the opportunity to buy a home.”
Andrew Charlton, one of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor MPs – who represents a warring suburb – has bought a $12 million holiday home (he is pictured with his lawyer wife Phoebe Arcus)
Insiders say that Anthony Albanese and Max Chandler-Mather are more alike than they would like to admit, and that Mr. Chandler-Mather reminds people of Mr. Albanese himself as a promising youngster.
He later told the Daily Mail Australia that “renters are starting to notice that the Labor Party, which refuses to remove big tax subsidies for property investors…or cap rent increases, also happens to be made up almost entirely of investors real estate.
“A Labor MP with a $42 million property portfolio represents an electorate where 51 per cent of residents are renters, but Labor opposes any form of capping rent increases or any changes to tax allocations for real estate investors.”
Mr Chandler-Mather has advocated rent freezes and reduced tax cuts for property investors – much to the chagrin of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Insiders say the two are much more alike than they would like to admit, and that Mr Chandler-Mather reminds people of Mr Albanese himself as a promising youngster.
Mr Chandler-Mather is a tenant himself and, despite his passionate advocacy for the cause, a handful of his Greens colleagues also own large property portfolios.
Speaking on the matter, Mr Chandler-Mather said the difference is that “every Green MP would vote today to phase out tax allowances for property investors to give first home buyers a chance, freeze and capping rent increases and investing billions of dollars.” in the construction of good quality public housing.
Green party whip Senator Nick McKim owns three properties in his home state of Tasmania.
It is understood one of them is little more than a “shack”, with a property at Nubeena, southwest of Hobart, and another house at New Norfolk, northwest of Hobart.
The Tasmanian senator clarified in May 2023 that he had only rented one of the properties.
A handful of Max Chandler-Mather’s colleagues in the Green party also own large property portfolios.
Mr Chandler-Mather is one of the few politicians who can put himself in Anthony Albanese’s shoes
And Senator Mehreen Faruqi owns, with her husband Omar Faruqi, a terrace in Beaconsfield in southern Sydney, a residence in the same area and a house in Port Macquarie, on the north coast of New South Wales.
She also owns only a 500 m² land in Lahore, Pakistan.
Queensland Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne rents a four-bedroom house in Cleveland, east of Brisbane, and has another property, her primary residence, in Gladstone.
The blue-chip lifestyle of Dr Charlton, an Oxford University graduate and former UN officer, contrasts with that of almost all of his Parramatta constituents.
He acknowledges their difficulties on his Labor Party profile page, lamenting that “it’s getting harder and harder for people to get ahead, no matter how hard they work”.
The $12 million purchase price in Palm Beach is 14.5 times Australia’s median house price of $825,923, and 8.6 times the already expensive median house price in Sydney , or $1.396 million.
The four-bedroom house is more than 50km from his electorate of Parramatta in Sydney’s west.
New property purchases are supposed to be declared on Parliament’s register of pecuniary interests, but Daily Mail Australia understands Dr Charlton has not yet listed the Palm Beach property as it awaits settlement.
Settlements in New South Wales take place six weeks after contracts are exchanged.
“Dr Charlton has complied and will continue to comply fully with parliamentary disclosure requirements,” a spokesperson for the MP said.
Dr Charlton was a former economic adviser to former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd from 2008 to 2010 during the global financial crisis.
His new home was previously owned by the late publican John Toohey and his wife Anne.
The $12 million he paid was less than the original asking price of $15 million, the Lucy Macken, prestigious real estate journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald revealing Dr. Charlton as the new owner for the first time.
The Pacific Place home, originally listed in September 2023, offers panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean and Barrenjoey Lighthouse from the south side of Palm Beach.
It also has an infinity pool and five bathrooms.
This is Dr. Andrew Charlton’s second mansion purchase since he purchased a $16.1 million home in Bellevue Hill in November 2020.
The La Palma home in Palm Beach (pictured) will be rented out as Dr Charlton and his family continue to live in a $2 million Parramatta penthouse – the only property purchase now on his register.
The house is offered for short-term rent at $2,300, provided guests stay at least two nights.
Dr Charlton, a 45-year-old economist, made his fortune creating the economic consulting and data analytics company AlphaBeta in 2015.
He sold it to the American professional services group Accenture for an undisclosed sum in 2020.
In March 2022, a Labor rival for Parramatta preselection, Abha Devasia, suggested that Dr Charlton’s wealth and background made him an unsuitable candidate in an electorate with a higher proportion of migrants.
“I desperately want Labor to win, but selecting a white male millionaire from the eastern suburbs to run in Parramatta would be a tone-deaf choice and deliberately disrespectful to our community,” she told the ABC.
Like former Prime Ministers Bob Hawke, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, Dr Charlton studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.
He is part of the House of Representatives’ economic committee, tasked with questioning Reserve Bank officials on interest rate hikes as Australians struggle with a cost of living crisis.
The former business executive was also educated at Knox Grammar on Sydney’s North Shore, where he was school captain in 1996.
The former economic adviser to former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd during the global financial crisis (pictured April 2010) bought the Palm Beach home in recent weeks.