EDITORIAL: PM’s purchase shows lack of political judgment

We will look back on this as Anthony Albanese’s Hawaiian holiday moment.

The Prime Minister’s purchase of a pricey new pad at Copacabana Beach, on the NSW Central Coast, is in itself an innocuous act.

But it’s the optics.

Mr Morrison was stung, and paid the price, for taking an ill-timed family holiday.

Mr Albanese will be judged by struggling voters, just months out from a federal election, for an ill-timed purchase of a family home.

Mr Morrison’s decision to take his family to a tropical paradise as summer bushfires were developing left ordinary Australians scratching their heads. No one could legitimately criticise him for taking his family on a quick break. However it left people feeling a little confused about his priorities.

Same story with Mr Albanese’s $4.3 million purchase with fiancée Jodie Haydon.

It gives the impression of a PM who is wildly out of touch with the difficulties faced by everyday Australians. At a time when thousands in Australia’s mortgage belt are struggling to scrape together their monthly repayments, their PM is splashing out on a large glass-fronted home with panoramic ocean views described in real estate parlance as “clifftop perfection”.

What was he thinking?

The timing of the revelation was particularly unfortunate for the Prime Minister, because it meant he was forced to defend his property acquisition while at a press conference to announce new homes in Logan, south-east Queensland’s battlers’ heartland.

At that press conference, Mr Albanese said he knew “what it’s like to struggle”.

He rehashed his Sydney log cabin story, as the son of a single mum doing it tough who “lived in the one public housing that she was born in for all of her 65 years”.

It’s a long way from Camperdown to Copacabana.

Few would begrudge Mr Albanese — or anyone — from buying a nice new home to share with his soon-to-be-wife. From a personal point of view, most Australians would think “good for him”.

Homeownership is, after all, a key part of the great Australian dream. Aspiration should be celebrated, not derided. And it would be foolish for Mr Albanese to patronise Australians by pretending he’s on anything other than a very good wicket.

Remember Mr Albanese is in a position to purchase this property because he gets to live in The Lodge, and Kirribilli House, for free, on us. Because his accommodation is covered by taxpayers, he is in the fortunate position to bring in rental income from his other properties.

Buying a luxury home — one he doesn’t need to live in because he has two taxpayer funded lodgings — just a few months out from what will be an election fought primarily on cost of living, and under the cloud of a housing supply crisis, puts a big question mark over Mr Albanese’s political judgment.

It sends the signal of a PM who is spending too much time thinking about his personal circumstances, and not enough on trying to mitigate the many challenges faced by Australians.