Labor’s attack on Peter Dutton’s property portfolio reeks of envy | Caleb Bond

The real issue here seems to be that he’s been smarter than a lot of people, writes Caleb Bond.

You can imagine how the Labor strategy meetings have gone recently when they come to the agenda item of how to win the election.

Shall they talk about the cost of living? No, they said they’d lower it – oops.

Power bills are down $275, yeah? Um, failed to deliver on that one.

What about delivering the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full – the Voice to Parliament?

Hmm, don’t mention the war.

But now they’ve found the silver bullet – Peter Dutton has made some astute investments and owned quite a few properties.

When all else fails, go for class warfare.

It is a sad indictment on our nature but this always happens.

The tall poppy must be lopped.

Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton delivers a speech at the Building a Bigger, Better SA Forum. Picture: NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

Dutton’s crimes are to have bought and sold 26 properties in 35 years and invested in three big banks shortly before the Rudd government bailed them out in the global financial crisis.

Now yes, some people will be annoyed that Mr Dutton has more money than them.

But the real issue here seems to be that he’s been smarter than a lot of people and managed to make a buck out of it.

People don’t seem to realise that the hardest property purchase you’ll ever make is your first – it becomes many factors easier to purchase more property after that.

Your property increases in value, you use the capital gains to borrow more money to buy another place and away you go.

You can do that in perpetuity and keep adding more to your portfolio.

It’s an opportunity available to anyone who owns a home but many don’t take advantage of it.

As for buying bank shares, he didn’t need any kind of insider information that the government would secure the banks to justify buying them.

On the balance of probabilities, it was a pretty safe bet that the government would protect the banks rather than let the system collapse.

Like astute investors have done forever, he bought when the market was down and rode the wave up.

The politics of envy is a pernicious cancer, for envy is the thief of joy.

It’s an old tactic to pit the haves and the have-nots against each other – that you must hate those who have more than you.

But the sad irony is that fighting the Liberal haves just advantages another group of haves.

Do you think that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is any better with his $4.3 million Copacabana clifftop mansion?

How about the fact that four of the top five property owners in the federal parliament are Labor MPs?

The reality is that Labor and the left, who have money, want you to hate people on the other side of the fence who have money, so they can make more money themselves.

It’s not about defending the working class – it’s about feathering their own nests.

This is sowing division 101.

We should all aspire to the success of Mr Dutton.

And I, for one, think the kind of bloke who’s had real jobs and shown some success in business is far more preferable for prime minister than a lifelong political apparatchik.

Originally published as Labor’s attack on Peter Dutton’s property portfolio reeks of envy | Caleb Bond