NSW Housing Minister Rose Jackson is no shrinking violet. She has been a NSW Labor operative in the blokey world of Sussex Street, a union official and a political activist since her high school days.
But a clumsily worded radio interview on ABC Sydney, in which she seemed to suggest that the rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Sydney was a “couple of hundred bucks”, has delivered Jackson what she says is the worst wave of abuse she has encountered in her political career.
Jackson acknowledged on Thursday that her Tuesday radio interview with Hamish Macdonald was “not my best work”. Instead of articulating what she thought was reasonable rent to pay for a two-bedder, she managed to sound as if she thought $200 was the going price for such a property.
Macdonald asked: “What do you reckon is a reasonable price to pay in rent for a two-bedroom flat in Sydney?” Jackson said it depended on the location in Sydney before seeming to guess the answer.
“Not all flats are the same,” Jackson said. “This is the thing about the housing market, there’s a lot of variety, like a luxe two-bed penthouse in the eastern suburbs is pretty different to a neat and tidy, two-bedroom flat next to a train station in western Sydney. They’re both good homes.”
She insists she was simply off form and garbled her words. For a one-off bad performance, the housing minister was shocked by the vitriol thrown her way in the aftermath of her interview.
NSW Housing Minister Rose Jackson took to Instagram to explain the stuff-up.
As well as widespread attacks on social media, Jackson received abusive emails, including one she shared on her Instagram account where she was called “a f---ing disgrace”, “a stupid inbred bitch” and told she should resign over the comments or kill herself.
She urged her followers to remember she is “a person just like everyone else, people need to be kinder. I’m sure we have all made mistakes at some point”.
“People want politicians to be normal but when you have a normal moment, people scream for you to resign,” Jackson told the Herald. “I cop a lot of abuse, and I accept that is part of the job, especially when it is to do with policy debates, but this was a new level.”
On Thursday, Jackson addressed the issue in parliament when she was pressed in question time. “I do reckon a couple of hundred bucks is a reasonable rent. Wouldn’t it be great?” she said.
“Wouldn’t it be great if that was what you could find for rentals? It’s not, it’s not, sadly.
“Certainly, my interview wasn’t excellent. I’ll give you that. It wasn’t my best work, however, in answer to the question, I do think that a couple of hundred bucks is a reasonable price to pay in rent in Sydney.”
Shelter NSW chief executive John Engeler said housing was a “highly passionate, political and personal space” which people were always watching closely.
“But when you have a minister performing such a high-wire act, and is delivering on housing more than any housing minister before her, and we are watching from below, we are always going notice a stumble,” Engeler said. “But that’s all it was – a stumble not a fall.”
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