Andrew Bragg caused quite a stir with his address and subsequent follow-up interviews. Andrew Bragg, in case you’re unaware, is a Liberal “moderate” who is worried about the current “communist” Australian government. (You can hear him here, talking about the “communist” meeting which is also sometimes referred to as the Labor Party Conference.)
Before last week’s attempt to outdo Dave “Dunning Kruger” Hughes, Senator Bragg was concerned that Labor was adopting a policy that would enable super funds to build houses for rent. This, apparently, would make us “slaves” whereas the current system where we have “mum and dad” landlords works a treat…
I’ve always been a bit dubious about people using the phrase “mum and dad” anything. I know that it’s meant to make them sound like everyday strugglers, but as I’ve pointed out before: Gina is a mother and so is Rupert!
Anyway, I’m still unable to work out why renting from a superannuation fund makes you a slave while paying money to Mr and Mrs McGillicuddy for your rental house doesn’t.
But onto what the moderate Senator Bragg was saying more recently. To be clear, his comments have been unfair portrayed by people who have had the audacity to quote him directly without repeating the entirety of his Press Club address, but he said that we needed to “pare back” the building code in order to make housing more affordable. This is something that I’m sure Labor would agree with. And the reason I’m sure is that they are currently looking at doing just that… but, you know, this is Labor and even when they’re doing the very thing that the Liberals are suggesting they have either not done it quickly enough or rushed it. Or not consulted widely enough. Or turned it into a talkfest when the time for action was a few years ago when they were first elected but not a few years ago when the Coalition were in power.
Senator Bragg went on to answer the question about whether people on lower incomes should accept substandard housing by saying, “Definitely, yes!”, which he followed by saying that he’d been told not use the term Maslow’s Hierarchy, but he used anyway, adding that people probably wouldn’t know what it meant. I mean not everyone has written books like he has.
He was obviously supporting Shadowy Treasurer Timmy Wilson, who told us that people should just put on a jumper rather than spend lots of money on housing quality. And he has a point. People sleeping rough save enough on rent and mortgages that it’s a wonder they don’t have more jumpers.
Anyway, Senator Bragg has since clarified that his “Definitely, yes!” has been misconstrued as meaning what he says when we should understand that politicians rarely ever mean what they say. In fact, not only did he mishear the question and therefore answered the question which his head made up – something that all politicians do on a regular basis – but nobody would be living in substandard homes because all homes would comply with the new standard, which would still have the same basic requirements such as doors and windows and, in most cases, a roof. Eliminating things like access and energy efficiency would mean that rather than paying so much up front, you could pay for your not substandard home with higher energy bills, thus ensuring that AGL and Origin would be able to maintain their profits which would benefit most people through their superannuation… that is until Senator Bragg has his way and compulsory super is abolished.
Whatever, his message was clear: In the Liberal Party someone who calls the current Labor Party “communist” is considered a moderate.
Desperate times, desperate measures.
Despairing polls equals desperate stupidity.
To press upon the ‘Press Club’, the LNP unleashes one of its most important jabbering clowns. Result? Pressing themselves hard into the corner of ignominy.