Anthony Albanese - How long? -2-

[Saint]

Maybe I could get behind this argument if there was some minimum criteria for experience before being eligible to be an MP, and then the median salary was tied only to people in the electorate who meet that same minimum criteria.

Obviously the 1000s of teenagers working checkout or fast food matter and deserve a voice... but I don't reckon that extends to the bell curve of those who reasonably and realistically tick the boxes to make good decisions about running a country.



100% agree with:



Pay a good amount of money. Enough to pay a salary to lure an appropriately qualified person into the role and pay for all the staff and expenses that come with the role. And let each MP manage that lump sum themselves as they see fit.

No rewards for being clever enough to rort your expenses... the amount of money is yours either way so if you piss it up the wall it's yourself who loses not the taxpayer.

Extra budgets and allowances for formal roles as a minister, member of a committee, member of a cabinet, etc. but again a set allowance and a report on how the money was spent save for if there's a national interest in maintaining non-disclosure e.g. for security reasons (still disclosed cost within the budget if not the precise reason for spend).

There's a lot of conundrums in it.

For one thing, the degradation of prestige of being a pollie thanks to partisan politics, pork barrelling and rorting means that it's no longer seen as a position of esteem. So people don't do it out of the goodness of their hearts.

The insecurity of the job for many of them is also a factor. If you're an executive or manager in your 40's with enough life experience and intelligence to make a really good politician, you're probably already on $200k+ by the time you're 45- and with high job security and respected career. Who would trade that to run for a political party, tainted by partisanship and toe-ing the party line, having to vote against your conscience and then lie to justify it?

Only ordinary people would want to take that job on. If they've got kids, to understand the plight of families, this age is also the very wrong time to be away from your kids. Again, who would want to do that?

 

[Pakenhamsaint]

Getting upset over the PM buying a $4million home is really dumb. It just goes to show how petty some people are

The only problem with it is optics.
Which in politics is rather important.

It looks bad that the PM is buying a 2nd property whilst a good chunk of the population can't even afford 1.

 

[Saint]

It's not the middle classes who will view this poorly.

It's the people living payslip to payslip, week to week, barely affording rent.

They don't have time to rationalise the purchase. They just see a class of people miles above them making decisions which hurt them and resenting it. They'll get upset, but I doubt it will change their votes.

It will assist the LNP in that it shows that the ALP are no longer the party of the working class (If they didn't already know that). They might be more for the working class, but they're not of the working class. They're an upper-class set of people supposedly making decisions on their behalf. (Except the ones which affect their property portfolio) and since homelessness/rent/house prices is such a big issue, how does Albanese now convince those people that he's making laws which discourage multi-property portfolios them while building a multiple-property portfolio himself?

They might be poor, but they're not stupid. They know everyone in Canberra is out for themselves, and this just reinforces that more.

 

[Saint]

Don't forget, Albanese now has about 5 properties he could choose to stay in for the night, while there are lots of people with no choice at all.

On the same day as this story. ABC laying the boots in.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

When a fibre cement 3 br house in Doveton costs half a Mil, something is seriously bananas.

I still remember when the Housing commission were selling of their old houses in Latrobe Valley in the late 1990s. Some went for less than $30 000.
Of course everyone's pay has gone up 10 times since then.

https://www.homely.com.au/homes/50-robertson-street-morwell-vic-3840/11494412

 

[Syd]

The only problem with it is optics.
Which in politics is rather important.

It looks bad that the PM is buying a 2nd property whilst a good chunk of the population can't even afford 1.

I may be corrected, but I believe this is #6 he either owns or co-owns

House in Marrickville, Unit in Canberra, 3 investment properties (Marrickville) and now the Coastal Property.

Just spare me the "I grew up in mum's housing commission" schtick.

 

[Saint]

I may be corrected, but I believe this is #6 he either owns or co-owns

House in Marrickville, Unit in Canberra, 3 investment properties (Marrickville) and now the Coastal Property.

Just spare me the "I grew up in mum's housing commission" schtick.

Don't forget the Lodge and Kirribilli.

A person with two homes already, gets granted access to two more mansions with servants and decides to buy another.

The 3 investment properties are just the icing on the "let them eat cake" housing policies the ALP is supporting and exploiting for personal gain at the expense of the working people they purport to represent.

 

[Pakenhamsaint]

It's not the middle classes who will view this poorly.

It's the people living payslip to payslip, week to week, barely affording rent.

They don't have time to rationalise the purchase. They just see a class of people miles above them making decisions which hurt them and resenting it. They'll get upset, but I doubt it will change their votes.

Given Labor is making the same error the Liberals are making. I can see it eating into the outer suburb vote in the same way the Teals ate into the Liberal vote.

Don't forget, Albanese now has about 5 properties he could choose to stay in for the night, while there are lots of people with no choice at all.

On the same day as this story. ABC laying the boots in.

Any rational person who sees some with 100 properties is a symptom of a problem.

Just spare me the "I grew up in mum's housing commission" schtick.

I would imagine the experience of growing up in one of them when he was growing up is vastly different to the experience people have today, one necessarily a better one.

 

[Saint]

Given Labor is making the same error the Liberals are making. I can see it eating into the outer suburb vote in the same way the Teals ate into the Liberal vote.

Any rational person who sees some with 100 properties is a symptom of a problem.
I would imagine the experience of growing up in one of them when he was growing up is vastly different to the experience people have today, one necessarily a better one.

The old climb-the-ladder then kick-it-out-from-under-you trick.

That's what it sounds like now with Albanese.