Australia’s prime minister has been accused of “diabolical optics” for buying a £2.2 million cliff-top villa while the country is in the grip of a housing crisis.
His decision to buy a property “with ocean views so expansive that they would challenge the visual field of an owl, right in the middle of a national housing crisis, right before an election campaign” was a “baffling strategic initiative,” commentator Annabel Crabb wrote for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The next federal election, due to be held by May, will be fought in part on the issue of housing affordability.
Several MPs from Mr Albanese’s party said the timing of the purchase was disastrous from a political point of view.
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***The Telegraph reports:***
Australia’s prime minister has been accused of “diabolical optics” for buying a £2.2 million cliff-top villa while the country is in the grip of a housing crisis.
[Anthony Albanese](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/08/29/australian-prime-minister-go-halvies-pacific-security-plan/)’s purchase of the beach house in the town of Copacabana on the coast of New South Wales could hurt his chances in the forthcoming general election, according to his party’s own MPs.
The purchase of the property was revealed on Tuesday, just as the leader of the [centre-Left](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/australias-brexit-moment-the-voice-indigenous-voters/) Labor Party was announcing measures, including building more homes, to deal with the [housing crisis](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/property/australia-immigration-house-prices-renting/).
His decision to buy a property “with ocean views so expansive that they would challenge the visual field of an owl, right in the middle of a national housing crisis, right before an election campaign” was a “baffling strategic initiative,” commentator Annabel Crabb wrote for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The next federal election, due to be held by May, will be fought in part on the issue of housing affordability.
Several MPs from Mr Albanese’s party said the timing of the purchase was disastrous from a political point of view.
**Article link:** [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/10/16/australian-pm-buys-22m-beach-villa-amid-housing-crisis/](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/10/16/australian-pm-buys-22m-beach-villa-amid-housing-crisis/)
Isn’t this just a mid-sized house in Sydney nowadays?
Yeah we know already. We don’t need some pommie newspaper to tell us what’s happening here.