PETER VAN ONSELEN: Anthony Albanese has spent a lifetime living off the public teat. Here’s how YOU have paid for every stage of the PM’s life. .. and he’ll have an amazing retirement in his $4.3m cliffside mansion, too

So the Prime Minister has bought a $4.3m waterfront coastal holiday house, which he and his second wife (to be) plan to call home when he retires from politics.

Is there anything wrong with that? The answer is, of course not. Albo can do what he likes with his own money. 

As long as he’s not breaking the law, he can choose to spend it however he likes, whenever he likes, on whatever purchases he chooses to make.

Which can include a five bedroom waterfront property on the NSW central coast.  

It is his money to waste or spend as wisely as he chooses. He can pop down to the horse track and gamble it all on a long shot. Invest in the Argentinian peso for all I care.

Critics of the PM’s property purchase are misguided if they begrudge him being able to afford such a property. That would be the personification of tall poppy syndrome.

If those critics are partisan they are also hypocrites if they aren’t prepared to throw similar barbs at Coalition MPs too.

But defenders of what’s happened are also missing the point if they simply claim nobody has the right to conclude the timing of the purchase, and potential political implications, were a bad move by Albo.

I fall into the category of someone who couldn’t care less how much he spends on a new home, but I am gobsmacked that he’s done it now – ahead of his bid to win a second term as PM. 

Because, whether anybody likes it or not, it’s a bad look at least in the eyes of some.

Mr Albanese’s new five-bedroom home has sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean and is just up the road from Copacabana Beach 

A real estate photo of Mr Albanese and wife-to-be Jodie Haydon’s new pad 

The story broke on the day the PM announced Labor’s affordable housing policy. What an awkward moment in time that was.

The purchase also comes in the midst of a cost of living crisis. As home owners struggle with high house prices, inadequate supply and high interest rates. Of course the purchase will cause some resentment.

With opinion polls suggesting a tight election is on the cards, what message does it send that Albo is preparing for his retirement already?

Many won’t care, but inevitably some will. Which is why timing the purchase now is just plain dumb, arrogant or out of touch. Or all three.

It isn’t unreasonable to argue that it suggests Albo has already checked out after nearly 30 years in politics. 

Even some of his own colleagues are interpreting the purchase that way.

I also get the impression the PM and his close supporters can’t understand why he doesn’t get more due respect for his ‘rags to riches’ life story. 

And why it doesn’t work as a political leave pass for him to buy an expensive property.

Born and raised in housing commission, Albo is now living in The Lodge as PM. So far as stories about rising from the bottom to top go, that’s a pretty inspiring tale.

Although given the low regard most Australians have for politicians, according to the polls, it’s perhaps not as inspiring a story as those of us immersed in politics like to think it is.

The fact that Albo can’t seem to shut up about it likely also irritates some people.

Anthony Albanese often evokes that he was raised in housing commission by a single mum – a pretty inspiring tale, and one often told

Because his rags to riches story is a tale of always benefiting from the largesse of the state. 

Even if, as Australians, we appreciate the importance of our welfare system, if you’re not an ideological supporter of Albo you might not be as enamoured by the tale.

Think about it: Albo benefited from state housing, the warm embrace of the Catholic Church paying his private school fees and free university tuition funded by Whitlam era largesse that no longer exists.

Then as a young adult, Albo embarked on his political career.

That career started with taxpayer funded political staffing roles, before moving into the senior ranks of Labor Party officialdom. 

Labor, of course, enjoys public funding, as most political parties do.

All of which culminated in a near 30 year career in parliament, working as a taxpayer-funded politician.

When Albo does retire to his waterfront mansion, he’ll enjoy further taxpayer funded largesse, courtesy of the old fashion parliamentary super scheme, which will pay him approximately $450,000 tax free each year until he departs this earth. It certainly makes for a comfortable retirement. 

Albo’s harshest critics would therefore say he will be on the public teat from the cradle to the grave. 

Mr Albanese went to university at the time of the Whitlam government’s free uni tuition

As an MP of nearly 30 years, Mr Albanese’s salary was, of course, paid by the taxpayer

Now let’s be clear about this: whether you like or loathe Albo, including the job he’s done as PM and before that during his long career in parliament, I have little doubt that he’s worked hard and quite obviously has done well for himself.

I also dislike the fact that new generations of prime ministers won’t get generous life time parliamentary pensions the way Albo will. They should.

But it’s also not hard to see why some Australians don’t laud the sort of career Albo has had as a feel good success story.

Some will see it as a lifetime of living off the taxpayer, that’s all. 

He didn’t invent something, work multiple jobs to pay the bills, risk it all on a small business or devote himself to a lifetime of charitable endeavours.

Reason, perhaps, for Albo to stop endlessly talking about his homegrown rags to riches tale.

Because at this point in time, everyone knows his back story. Those who are inspired by it don’t need reminding.

But those who aren’t, the more they are told about it, in a form of self- congratulation by the man himself, the more likely they are to become resentful. 

And when it’s wrapped up with decisions such as purchasing a multi-million dollar waterfront mansion, it’s no surprise therefore that some people are turned off.

I’m not one of them. I’ve been financially very fortunate in my life. 

But I sure do think it was politically stupid for Albo to buy such an expensive property located by the water this side of the election, not after it.

That’s also what most of the PM’s Labor colleagues privately think by the way.

But for a politician who has already said one thing before an election only to break promises and do something differently afterwards – which Albo has already done on everything from income tax cuts to superannuation – is it really such a stretch to expect him to be clever enough to hold back on an expensive property purchase until after the next election?

The fact he wasn’t willing to do that at best suggests he’s a stand up guy unwilling to engage in trickery. Despite having wilfully done so in the past when it comes to policy backflips.

Or it might suggest he’s arrogant enough to believe he can politically get away with it, or he already has one foot out the political door. Or both.

Any which way you look at it, at the very least it’s a distraction at a time when Labor needs Albo to be at his best to build election winning support to secure Labor a second term in power.