Politicians and
negative gearing
Canberra’s 226 MPs and senators own 524 properties between them – an average of 2.4 each – analysis by the ABC has found.
Only 10 federal politicians don’t own property, meaning 96% of the total do, compared to the national average of just above 50%.
And while the government remains strongly opposed to changes to negative gearing, the Coalition’s 105 MPs and senators collectively own 290 properties and nearly half of them, 139, are investments.
Talk about skin in the game: Australia’s 225 federal politicians have $370 million tied up in the property market.
And that’s a conservative estimate based on the assumption that each of their 561 declared properties is worth the average Australian dwelling price of $656,800.
If politicians owned $370 million worth of shares in fossil fuel companies, no one would trust them to make sensible or impartial decisions on environmental or renewable energy policy. So on housing affordability – the great barbecue stopper of modern times – it makes sense to keep your expectations very low indeed.
Here is the ABC’s breakdown of who owns what, based on political affiliations:
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