Australian politicians: staggeringly out of touch

[Seeds]

Housing is one symptom, but the general lack of awareness of what Cost of Living is doing to people is showing up. The ALP refusing to do anything about it, when they should be treating all of CoL as a national emergency (including house prices) shows that they're out of touch.

Nearly everybody is worse off financially since 2022, I guess with the exception of ALP Cabinet members and members of mostly the top 20% of wealthy people.

The fact the ALP has chosen to do next to nothing on CoL since the last budget shows how out of touch they are. They're losing polls because of it.

They don't know about CoL because they charge all their meals to the Govt or their partner at home does the shopping and cooking and doesn't bother them about it.

The ALP truly have no clue what they're walking into. The economy is teetering on recession (per-capita recession in full swing), housing is unachievable and underemployment is going up. And the ALP look like they're going to go into the election the same way the US Democrats did saying "what a great job we've done at bringing recession down, now we're all in celebration mode" and buying houses and aren't we all so happy.

Unemployment is up from 3.5% in July 2022 to 4.1%
Wages are up about 7% over the same period.
Inflation (CPI) is up 12% over the same period.
Dwelling prices are up 9% over the same period.

There are zero measures which look good for the ALP, all are trending horribly for them (dwellings and inflation higher than wage growth still, underemployment is up another 1% on top of this.

If we ignore housing the only area the govt could/should of done something was on gas prices. What else should they have done that wouldnt have caused bigger damage down the track?

You cant do much about a global supply chain crisis caused by pandemic policies. Its a genuine shock to productivity. You cant bypass it.

 

[Saint]

If we ignore housing the only area the govt could/should of done something was on gas prices. What else should they have done that wouldnt have caused bigger damage down the track?

You cant do much about a global supply chain crisis caused by pandemic policies. Its a genuine shock to productivity. You cant bypass it.

Ummmm, impose even the most minimal tax on the gas companies who were pumping up prices to make record profits.

Gas prices were not affected by the global supply chain crisis or pandemic policies. If anything, prices should have gone down as demand was less. But the companies just jacked them up because they could, mostly because Russian supply was on the nose.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Solidarity, comrades.

****ing idiots.

 

[geoffjennings79]

Solidarity, comrades.

****ing idiots.

If he'd posted the original, no one would have cared. Like you said...

 

[HurleyHepsHird]

Both major parties have an issue with this.

Their representatives just seem to have less and less in common with those they purport to represent.

Housing is a key topic in point.

Some say the PM buying a $4m beachfront house in the middle of a housing crisis shouldn’t affect him electorally. Personally I’d say that’s extremely naive.

The register of interest shows we have a parliament full of housing speculators. This is further and further removed from the reality of many people.

I feel there’s been a bit of a change in how this is viewed of late. Once upon a time people saw somebody owning multiple residential properties as a success story to be congratulated.

But now, with so many people actually not being able to afford a home - or knowing someone who can’t - attitudes seem to have shifted somewhat.

Today we have this absolute shocker from NSW Housing Minister Rose Jackson. When it comes to the price of milk this can seem like cheap gotcha questioning. When you’re talking about a core living requirement - and you’re a housing minister, no less - it looks really, really bad

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The median unit rental price in Sydney is around $700 per week.

A quick search on realestate shows not a single property in Greater Sydney for $200 per week. The search returns only car parks or shared bedrooms.

It's an issue of social class and wealth.

You have a lot of politicians that grow up in wealthy suburbs, go to private schools, are well connected and are eased into positions of importance.

Naturally that makes them out of touch.

The other issue is wealth. Not salary bracket but ownership of propert, shares, productive capital (small/medium business) and so on.

That means their personal interests also diverge steeply from the majority who aren't of that same asset owning class.

Seems reductive, but it's the main cause for them being at odds with the wider public good and interest.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

It's an issue of social class and wealth.

You have a lot of politicians that grow up in wealthy suburbs, go to private schools, are well connected and are eased into positions of importance.

Naturally that makes them out of touch.

The other issue is wealth. Not salary bracket but ownership of propert, shares, productive capital (small/medium business) and so on.

That means their personal interests also diverge steeply from the majority who aren't of that same asset owning class.

Seems reductive, but it's the main cause for them being at odds with the wider public good and interest.

Naturally.

There are things you can do though. Starting with representation. A simple and effective rule - live in an electorate for five years before being able to represent it.

 

[Crankyhawk]

Thoughts on the Victorian socialist senate candidate who posts addresses of unoccupied dwellings for homeless people to squat in? Currently in the news as one property recently put in the list the owner came back and found squatters had sold her belongings and changed the locks

For myself I really don’t know how I feel. On one hand these unoccupied properties are not suited for rental market due to condition, and it’s expensive to repair, but owners may not want to sell for emotional connection (this particular property appears to have been inherited in a run down state). On the other homeless people understandably have attitude of any roof better than none.

And there is no feasible way to work out who is responsible for the blatant property damage and losses.

I bring it up here as I haven’t seen it discussed anywhere and whether this is a counter example (a politician who is more in touch)