Labor MPs are understandably furious that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spent $4.3 million on a luxury beachfront getaway during a housing and cost of living crisis.
“It looks like he’s got one foot out the door”, one MP told The Australian Financial Review, who, like others, spoke candidly only on condition of anonymity. “It’s a bad look. It’s a shocker”.
Another said the blunder was made all the worse because embarking on the purchase was a deliberate and detailed process.
“It wasn’t just a f—-up at a press conference.”.
…“He was told it’s a bad idea”, he said.
Australian taxpayers should also be furious because in June, Albanese personally announced that the federal government would spend $100 million to upgrade the main road leading to his extravagant holiday pad.
“In June this year, Mr Albanese held a press conference where he personally spoke about the upgrade to Avoca Drive on the Central Coast. It will be funded with $100 million in federal government money and $30 million in state funding”, Sky News reported.
Asked about the upgrade, Albanese said that Avoca Drive “is a real choke point, so it’s very important, and that’s why we’ve provided funding to make sure that it happens”.
“Albanese probably knew he wanted to buy a place in the area, saying he and fiancé Jodie Haydon chose Copacabana because she is a “coastie” – meaning, her family are from the Central Coast of NSW”, Sky News reported.
“The Prime Minister now faces questions about whether he knew he intended to buy a home in the area before he announced the millions of dollars in taxpayer funding”.
Where there is smoke, there is generally fire. The value of Albo’s Copacabana getaway will likely rise courtesy of the infrastructure upgrade.
I can guarantee you this much: the outcry would have been 10 times louder had Scott Morrison done something similar during his reign.
