Anika Wells shares video of Ooshies to explain Australia’s housing market, supply and demand

Labor MP Anika Wells is under fire for trying to explain Australia’s housing crisis with Ooshies.

In a video shared to both her Instagram and Facebook accounts, the Communications Minister used the Woolworths promotional toys to answer the question, “What do (Ooshies) and the Australian housing market have in common?”, which she asked while holding a figurine of Buzz Lightyear.

“Both the Ooshie market and the Australia housing market are dictated by supply and demand,” she said with dozens of Ooshies in front of her.

“The problem right now is that supply of Ooshies and supply of housing is not keeping pace with demand.

“To fix that problem and increase supply, at the last budget, Labor told housing investors or Ooshies collectors, you can keep using the tax system to buy Ooshies, but only new ones.

“In turn, that means more new Ooshies to rent and more existing Ooshies for first time buyers.”

The controversial video was captioned “hot property” and had the late Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 playing in the background.

The analogy between the housing market and the popular toy has been met with much criticism.

Most of the comments have implied the minute-long video is patronising and mocks the country’s housing crisis.

“Is this actually footage from Parliament House,” asked one commenter.

“We are not 3 years old,” added another.

A commenter asked, “Is this how Dr Jim explains his Albonomics?”

The Labor party has been under fire for its housing policies since Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed down his Budget and introduced sweeping reforms to capital gains tax and negative gearing.

Shadow housing minister Andrew Bragg told News24 the video was “patronising”.

“Labor’s housing model is more taxes, regulation and corruption,” he said.

“And now it seems even their comms strategy has gone astray.

“Using Ooshies to explain how they have failed Australians. . .It’s a very patronising thing to do.”