Anthony Albanese’s decision to buy a $4.3 million beachfront mansion in the midst of a housing crisis has achieved a rare political feat: uniting conservative and left-wing political commentators against him.
It was revealed on Tuesday that the Prime Minister is the new owner of a five-bedroom house in Copacabana, just south of Avoca on the New South Wales Central Coast.
Albanese will share the $4.3 million cliffside home with his fiancée Jodie Haydon, whose ‘Coastie’ family has lived in the area for several generations.
The prime minister was quizzed on whether he thought his expensive new purchase was a “good look” during the country’s cost-of-living crisis, which is largely due to staggering property prices, high interest rates and skyrocketing rents. .
But Albanese insisted he was not planning to move into the property any time soon, telling reporters he would remain in his “current job for a very long period of time.”
Unsurprisingly, his decision to buy the huge mansion proved an open target for the country’s conservative media, with Sky News presenter Andrew Bolt accusing Albanese of “harming his party”.
“It was selfish to buy this house at this time, when millions of Australians are struggling to get a roof over their heads,” Bolt thundered in a Herald of the sun column.
But perhaps less expected, Albanese’s growing property empire has also ignited his usual left-wing supporters, with many comparing him to Scott Morrison’s “Hawaii moment”.
Anthony Albanese’s decision to buy a $4.3 million beachfront mansion in the midst of a housing crisis has achieved a rare political feat: uniting conservative and left-wing political commentators against him.
Even ABC star Annabel Crabb has criticized the Prime Minister, calling his decision the “most baffling strategic initiative” since Morrison’s ill-fated vacation to Hawaii during the December 2019 bushfires.
ABC star Annabel Crabb wrote a scorching takedown on Wednesday, claiming it was the “most baffling strategic initiative” since Morrison’s ill-fated vacation to Hawaii during the December 2019 wildfires.
“However, the cold truth is that this purchase only made the Prime Minister’s (and his colleagues’) professional life much, much more difficult,” Crabb wrote.
The Kitchen Cabinet host’s article came on the heels of a equally critical column of Guardian Australia, whose former political editor Katherine Murphy took a spinning job for Mr Albanese in January.
“It’s hard to think of a more politically tone-deaf decision than Anthony Albanese’s purchase of a $4.3 million clifftop mansion six months before a cost-of-living election,” she fumed. Murphy’s former colleague, senior reporter Sarah Marsh.
The Prime Minister is the proud new owner of the five-bedroom hotel in Copacabana on the New South Wales Central Coast.
The house sits right at the top of the cliff on a 790 square meter lot and is just a short walk from the perfect beach.
Marsh also undermined the Prime Minister’s defense of the property purchase on Tuesday when he repeated that he “knows what it’s like to struggle” because he was raised by a single mother in a public housing apartment.
‘Having been in parliament for almost 30 years and now with an income of $550,000, the “Marrickville fighter” trope rings hollow when you have to defend the timber-clad cathedral ceilings of your third property in Copacabana (of all places). ),’ wrote Mrs. Marsh.
And he added: “The sentence is appalling, the optics really terrible.”
Left-wing writer Rachael Withers noted that people did not criticize Albanese for being rich.
“He is being criticized for showing a lack of judgment (many think it is a bad image, including Labor MPs, whether they agree or not), and for not doing enough for those struggling *now*, for whom his trajectory of wealth It’s impossible,” she wrote in X.
Former ABC journalist Quentin Dempster called Albanese a “drongo”
Feminist social commentator Jane Caro was the only voice supporting Albanese. He later deleted the post.
Others, like lecturer and social commentator Ben Eltham, opted for sarcasm.
“I don’t know why anyone gets angry,” he wrote on X.
“It’s just a $4.3 million beachfront home bought in the middle of a real estate crisis.”
Former ABC journalist Quentin Dempster called Albanese a “drongo”.
‘Politics has to do with popular perception. For example, the “pub test” typed in X.
“Like ScoMo’s secret vacation to Hawaii, Albo’s beach house purchase in a cost of living/housing crisis has provided free shots that will resonate until the next federal election.”
However, a small minority came out to defend the prime minister.
“The childish attack on the Prime Minister for buying a house with his partner is astonishing,” wrote political biographer Professor Jenny Hocking.
‘Is there really nothing more important to write about?’
Walkley Award-winning feminist social commentator Jane Caro posted: ‘Albo bought a house. Good luck to him.
He later deleted the post.
