Double-dipping Airbnb investors are in the money | Samantha Maiden
Shovelling cash to double-dipping property investors may prove harder to explain than deciding not to means-test billionaires, writes Samantha Maiden.
Jim Chalmers’ hypnotic calmness was shaken but not stirred as a conga-line of political opponents lined up to shout at him about being given $300.
Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie erupted on national television over the plan to hand out the energy rebate to every household on budget night.
Within hours of the largesse being detailed to an ungrateful nation, the political backlash had begun,
“Not means tested? Are we back in Covid days? We’re just chucking money, left, right and centre,’’ she fumed.
“Seriously, you’re too lazy to do some means testing. We don’t need $300. I can assure you.”
Some of her criticisms will no doubt be embraced by many voters. She can be something of a truth-teller in the Senate.
But her suggestion that the government was too “lazy” to means test the $300 rebate was pretty dumb.
It’s a simple fact that energy companies do not keep records of household income when dishing out quarterly energy bills.
And can you imagine the outcry if the government proposed that they start doing that?
If the government wanted to apply a hard means test, they could pay the rebate only to people already on income support – pensioners, the unemployed and so on.
But the Albanese Government wanted to give middle income families some cost of living relief too.
They also wanted to do something that might reduce inflation and help prod the Reserve Bank in the direction of reducing interest rates before the next election.
Once that was decided, the only clean option was to give it to everyone and not stuff around with the compliance costs of checking everyone’s income.
Imagine the public servants it would take to administer that?
During a testy interview on the ABC’s 7.30 program, host Sarah Ferguson repeatedly challenged Dr Chalmers on whether the energy-rebate-for-everyone was a good idea.
“You talked about middle Australia but there’s a whole bunch of people who aren’t in middle Australia, like yourself, who don’t need help paying their bills,’’ she said.
“Why do you need to give energy relief to those people?”
Dr Chalmers insisted the rebate would put downward pressure on inflation and as a result interest rates.
“First of all, I think these cost-of-living pressures go up and down the income scale,’’ he said.
“I think people are under the pump right around Australia.”
“The simplest way to deliver this cost of living relief is via energy bills,’’ he said.
“Every taxpayer gets a tax cut, and then there’s targeted cost of living help.”
But there’s no doubt the outcome is messy.
Soon, it emerged that millionaires and billionaires that own more than one house in Australia will be able to claim more than one $300 energy rebate.
As long as the electricity bill is in their name, they’re in the money.
In a potential boon for Airbnb landlords, if your name is on the bill you can claim multiple rounds of the $300 energy rebate.
But if you own an investment property and the electricity bill is in the name of the tenant, the $300 rebate will be rebated to the energy bill of whoever’s name is on the bill.
Anthony Albanese was quick to rule out means testing the $300 energy rebate despite conceding that means billionaire Gina Rinehart could get it for her $34 million beach house in Noosa.
Speaking on the Today show, host Karl Stefanovic asked the Prime Minister if that was fair.
“How do you explain how Jenny from the block in Yorkeys Knob gets the same power rebate as Gina from Noosa?,’’ he said.
“Well, I’m not aware of who Jenny and Gina are,’’ the Prime Minister replied.
“But I’m sure they’re fine Australians. And you know what? They deserve support. I’m sure they are taxpayers.”
Stefanovic then offered to explain who he was referring to in the analogy.
“So let me spell it out for you, Gina, as Gina Rinehart, does she need help with the power bill,’’ Stefanovic said.
“Well, Gina Rinehart is, close to some people in politics. Of course, in this building, as you know, Karl, I haven’t met Gina,’’ the Prime Minister said.
“But, what we have done is make sure that every single Australian gets support, but does.”
Stefanovic then asked the obvious question: does someone who has multiple homes get multiple discounts if they’re with multiple power companies?,’’ Stefanovic asked.
“Well, this is a household bill relief of $300 for every household, every household gets it,’’ the Prime Minister replied.
Bingo.
According to the budget papers there are 10 million households eligible for the rebate.
But ABS stats also suggest there are one million unoccupied homes in Australia – a truly bizarre statistic.
They might be vacant because they are AirBnBs, or homes being sold as vacant possession or holiday homes.
That suggests up to $300 million of the $3.5 billion handout could end up going to houses where nobody lives.
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Originally published as Double-dipping Airbnb investors are in the money | Samantha Maiden
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