Dishonest Politicians

The man in the image behind me is Australia’s most dishonest politician.   I know this is a big statement, because Australian politics abounds with dishonesty, deception and bastardry.   We have a Federal Government which has routinely broken its election promises, including the ones about tax cuts and about taxation of superannuation, and they’ve been in power less than two years.   We have politicians on all sides of the political divide who habitually tell lies in Parliament and in front of the media, as the current Federal Government did on the issue of implementing the promised tax cuts.   They were still lying about that the week before they finally admitted they wouldn’t be implementing the tax cuts as promised at the election and repeatedly since then.   They say we get the politicians we deserve and in Australia we certainly do, because we don’t punish the politicians who lie to us.   But Adam Bandt, the Federal Leader of the Greens, is at another level of dishonesty.   He constantly and consistently misrepresents the housing industry and the people who participate in it, in the interests of achieving media profile and presenting himself as the saviour of those who rent.   He is, in fact, the opposite of their saviour. He’s their nemesis. If his policies on the rental market were implemented, it would turn the current rental shortage crisis into a catastrophe, with vacancies even lower than the current average of just 1%, which is already an historically low figure.   But Bandt appears to believe his stance is a vote winner and he’s happy to lie to achieve his goals.   Every time he speaks on this issue, he seeks to characterise the average investor as someone who owns 6 or 8 properties and wants more.   The official data from the ATO shows that less than 1% own more than five properties. 90% of those who own investment properties own 1 or 2, of which 72% own just one.    And they’re mostly people on average incomes, trying to improve their financial situation. They are not, as the Greens leader claims, the wealthy elite of the nation with massive property portfolios, ripping off the taxation system.   Bandt also frequently blames investors for high property prices and poor affordability, without presenting any evidence to back up his sweeping statements – and ignoring the reality that investors comprise less than 30% of buyers and that most of the people out there competing for dwellings – and therefore pushing up property prices - are home buyers, including first-home buyers.   There has been a number of independent research studies recently on the major drivers of high property prices – and I emphasise that these are genuine research studies, not sweeping statements by attention-seeking minor politicians or people with a vested interest in the argument.   Reports by the NSW Productivity Commission and by think tank The Centre for Independent Studies have both independently concluded that the biggest reason prices and rents have risen is planning restrictions by politicians and bureaucrats, particularly those that prevent greater density of development in existing suburbs.   These reports argue that rising prices have not been caused by negative gearing or other investor influences, but by planning restrictions which have prevented a good supply of affordable new dwellings.   But the Greens happily ignore these inconvenient truths.   And if Bandt has his way, investors will be hounded out of existence, because property investment will be no longer viable if his policies were implemented.   And the issue that political parasites like Adam Bandt never address is this: if you squash property investors the way he and his cohorts want to, where are the rental properties coming from?   New data from Australia’s best research analyst, Simon Pressley of Propertyology, confirms there are 3.5 million rental homes in Australia - and 3.2 million of them are provided by private investors.   That’s 91.4% of rental homes supplied by everyday mum-and-dad investors. Only 300,000 rental homes are provided by government.   If you drum investors out of existence, as this idiot wants to do, there needs to be a plan for how you replace those three million homes provided by the investors that the Greens want to squash.   Presumably they expect state governments to step up and provide all the rental dwellings that the nation needs.   And the cost of providing 3.2 million rental homes – conservatively – is $1,300 billion.    Can anyone suggest a state or territory government in this country which has a few hundred billion dollars to spare to replace what is currently provided by mum-and-dad investors.   Mr Bandt – what’s your policy for achieving this?   It’s a rhetorical question – I know you don’t have one. All you have is a burning and rather unsettling hatred for anyone who owns an investment property.