ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
As much as the Australian media commentators insist that world leaders should live in poverty, Prime Minister Albanese and his new wife have this week announced the purchase of a house that costs twice as much as the 300 square metre workers cottage in Marrickville.
As Murdoch and the Nine newspapers work overtime in their efforts to paint this new $4m dollar home as his ‘Hawaii Moment’ – the fact remains, a house on the top of a hill in the coastal town of Copacabana would still very much be considered poverty by the last three oceanfront Prime Ministers that preceded Albanese.
The fact that this world leader and his wife have worked as foreign diplomats and top-brass public servants for their entire adult lives, and have no dependents, and will eventually need to live in a house that can be permanently surveilled by the Federal Police, is lost in the media hysteria.
It seems that Australia’s journalists have suddenly realised that their country is in the grips of a housing crisis, but only because it looks like they might be able to land a punch on a Prime Minister that has plans to ban the predatory gambling advertisements that keep their lights on.
Regardless, this sea-change does not exactly transform Albanese as the ‘detached inner city elite’ that they want him to be. Because the NSW Central Coast is not exactly Point Piper or Manly – or even Cronulla for that matter.
It’s a rugby league heartland full of tatted up tradies who become fearless after a few Vodka Monsters.
It’s the home TapOut flat brims and Hurley T-shirts, and the locals vote Labor every second election.
This is not the type of coastal region that politicians can just blow into. They must embrace the community, join their surf clubs, and dine at their favourite Chinese restaurants that have sat next to the same BI-LO for 40 years with the same fading red curtains.
And it’s for this reason that Prime Minister Albanese has slowly transformed into ‘Coastie Albo’.
As reported by the Betoota Advocate yesterday, Coastie Albo was seen wearing white Oakley sunnies with blue lenses on top of his new Fox Racing cap that he bought at the servo.
Today, the Prime Minister has decided to go full send and upgrade his day-to-day vehicle. At time of press, Coastie Albo was researching Facebook Marketplace for a lowered mid-90s Hilux with a carpeted flat tray in the greater Gosford area.
Most sellers are saying NO LOW BALLERS, but Albanese is a coastie now. And that means he’s only hitting them with nearest offers.
