Anthony Albanese has clarified his controversial new waterfront purchase, saying he could have sworn his Government’s new housing policy was to ‘buy a new $4 million property before 2025’.
Explaining the mishap today, the PM said it was noisy when Housing Minister Claire O’Neil presented the policy, and he couldn’t hear properly. “There was a lot of background noise and chatter and it really was hard to hear. Apparently she said ‘We need to look at options to reduce red tape on Planning’, but I thought she said ‘There are some great options in Noosa and Copacabana’. Easy mistake to make.
It wasn’t the only part of the presentation he misheard. “When she said, ‘Let’s take it up to the Tories,’ it really did sound like ‘Make sure it’s a double story’. So you can see how we ended up where we are”.
Albanese said that, despite the mistake, the outcome was essentially the same. “Under the policy I’ve implemented there will be just 399,999,999 fewer houses, but apart from that, we’ve ended up in the same place”.
