Far be it from me to defend Albo for the treatment he’s copping from one of his investment property tenants, but the guy now beating up on the PM is clearly a whinger.
The fact he’s always been a Labor voter too is merely a coincidence.
Reports emerged that the Prime Minister approved an eviction notice for Jim Flanagan, the tenant of a three-bedroom Dulwich Hill investment property Albo bought back in 2015 for $1.175million.
Today it’s likely worth in excess of $2million, and I guess the PM wants to reap the financial reward. The booming property market might be a political problem for the Government, but when property investments dominate your financial portfolio it has its rewards.
Mr Flanagan has lived in the property Albo owns for more than four years, and has previously praised the PM as a fantastic landlord.
Jim Flanagan (pictured) has enjoyed reduced rent courtesy of the PM but is outraged Albo plans to sell the property and kick him out
The bar owner and musician (pictured) is unhappy the PM is evicting him
Of course he has: when the pandemic struck, the then-Opposition leader reduced Mr Flanagan and his then-partner’s rent from $900 to $680 – and he hasn’t raised it once since that time.
Not once!
Whether that move by Albo was political spin or not – he was widely praised for his actions at the time – really doesn’t matter. The real world impact of it was that Albo helped his tenant out, just as he was calling on other landlords to do.
The property is now earning half what it could be, and has been well below rental averages in the Dulwich Hill area for years.
On my back-of-envelope calculations, Albo has saved Mr Flanagan at least $60,000 over the years on what the market rent of that property could have earned the PM as part of his investment portfolio.
If Mr Flanagan couldn’t have afforded such increases he’d have been forced to move out years ago. It’s now clear he has grown used to enjoying the lifestyle of a property he’s paying peppercorn rent to live in compared to what he should be getting charged.
Albo has been beyond generous to this guy. Especially so when you consider he’s still paying off a mortgage on the place.
Yet when the PM’s personal circumstances changed – he has a lavish wedding to fund as well as scout out a new marital home for when he and fiancée Jodie Haydon tie the knot and enjoy post-politics life – the lucky tenant started trash-talking the PM in the media.
Talk about self-entitled!
Mr Flanagan, the small business owner of a bar, says he’s doing it tough and felt the need to ‘call out’ Albo’s actions.
Call out what, exactly?
The PM has a right to sell his own property. He has rented it out well below market value for years. He cut the rent by 25 per cent when the pandemic hit, leaving it there ever since. He’s given this bloke 90 days’ notice when legally he only had to provide a fraction of that amount of time.
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
Pictured is the restaurant Jim Flanagan owned with his former partner when he first started renting one of the PM’s investment properties
Mr Flanagan owned The Sausage Factory with his then-partner before pivoting to running a bar
Would Mr Flanagan give free drinks to patrons at his bar who arrive and inform him they are doing it tough? I highly doubt it.
He’s just the sort of fellow you know was in a band in his youth, he probably had long hair too, all before ‘getting serious’ and opening a bar.
The only thing I will say having defended Albo on this one is that you reap what you sow: modern Labor is leaning into the handout mentality that fuelled this guy’s resentment at being mugged by the reality of the PM’s changed circumstances.
This is what happens when that attitude permeates through society.
Hopefully the lived experience Albo faced dealing with Mr Flanagan’s entitled attitude will give him pause for thought the next time he makes a public policy decision or comment that panders to this growing problem in Australian society.
