Australia PM faces backlash over new A$4.1m beach pad
ReutersAustralian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is under fire after buying a multi-million-dollar cliff-top home amid a national housing crisis.
Albanese made the purchase months out from an election in which the cost of living and housing are key issues.
The move has sparked backlash from across the political divide – with his opponents calling it "tone deaf" and some within his own party anonymously telling local media it left them "gobsmacked".
Albanese defended his decision, saying he "knows what it is like to struggle" but bought the luxury property to be close to his fiancee Jodie Haydon's family on the New South Wales Central Coast.
Property records show the four-bedroom, three-bathroom, and three-carport property in Copacabana – which has panoramic views – was sold for A$4.3m ($2.9m, £2.2m) last month, but the purchase is yet to settle.
At a press conference about housing on the day news of his new home broke, Albanese said he was aware that he was "better off" than many Australians due to his income but that he could still empathise with their struggle.
"My mum lived in the one public housing [home] that she was born in for all of her 65 years," he told reporters.
“I know what it is like, which is why I want to help all Australians into a home.”
Albanese's Labor party has created a A$10b investment fund for social and affordable housing. It has struggled to get other housing initiatives through parliament though, due in part to a lack of support from the Australian Greens party and some independents, who want the government to produce more ambitious policy proposals.