Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather has called out wealthy Labor MP Andrew Charlton over his fast-growing $42 million property portfolio.
As ambitious voters are increasingly priced out of the housing market, the vocal Greens spokesman said “people have a right to be angry” over the Parramatta MP’s latest $12 million purchase.
Dr. Charlton and his wife, lawyer Phoebe Arcus, recently added the luxurious four-bedroom Palm Beach mansion called ‘La Palma’ to their dazzling roster of homes.
It comes just three years after he bought a $16.1 million Fintry mansion on Bellevue Hill in Sydney’s east in November 2020. Dr. Charlton also owns a terrace in luxurious Woollahra, also in the east of the city.
He lives in a $2 million penthouse apartment in Parramatta, where he represents struggling fighters in a key marginal seat in Sydney’s west that Labor will be desperate to retain at the next election.
Mr Chandler-Mather said on Wednesday: ‘A single Labor MP has a property portfolio worth $42 million, as do 75 per cent of Labor MPs who own investment properties.
‘People have a right to be angry that Labor is refusing to abolish tax breaks for property investors, which deprive millions of renters of the opportunity to buy a home.’
Andrew Charlton, one of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor MPs – who represents a suburb of the fighters – has bought a $12 million holiday home (he is pictured with his wife, lawyer Phoebe Arcus)
Insiders say Anthony Albanese and Max Chandler-Mather are more alike than they would like to admit, and that Mr Chandler-Mather reminds people of Mr Albanese himself as a young up-and-comer.
He later told Daily Mail Australia that ‘renters are starting to notice that the Labor Party, which refuses to abolish the big tax breaks for property investors… or increase rent increases, also happens to be made up almost entirely of property investors.
‘A Labor MP with a property portfolio of $42 million represents an electorate where 51 per cent of residents rent, but Labor is opposed to any cap on rent increases or changes to tax breaks for property investors.’
Mr Chandler-Mather has advocated rent freezes and cutting tax credits for property investors – much to the anger of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Insiders say the two are a lot more alike than they would like to admit, and that Mr. Chandler-Mather reminds people of Mr. Albanese himself as a young newcomer.
Mr Chandler-Mather is a tenant himself, and despite his passionate advocacy for the cause, a handful of his Green Party colleagues also have significant property portfolios.
Speaking on the issue, Mr Chandler-Mather said the difference is that ‘every Green MP would vote today to phase out tax breaks for property investors to give first home buyers a chance, freeze and cap rent increases, and save billions of dollars to invest. in building good quality public housing’.
Greens Party Senator Nick McKim owns three properties in his home state of Tasmania.
One is believed to be little more than a ‘hut’, along with a property in Nubeena, south-west of Hobart, and another house in New Norfolk, north-west of Hobart.
The Tasmanian senator made it clear in May 2023 that he was only renting out one of the properties.
A handful of Max Chandler-Mather’s colleagues in the Greens also have significant property portfolios
Mr Chandler-Mather is one of the few politicians who can get under Anthony Albanese’s skin
And Senator Mehreen Faruqi, together with her husband Omar Faruqi, owns a Beaconsfield terrace in Sydney’s south, a private home in the same area and a house in Port Macquarie on the New South Wales north coast.
She also owns a 500 sqm plot of land in Lahore, Pakistan.
Penny Allman-Payne, a Greens senator for Queensland, rents out a four-bedroom house in Cleveland, east of Brisbane, and has another property, her main residence, in Gladstone.
The lifestyle of Oxford University graduate and former member of the United Nations Dr Charlton stands in contrast to almost all of his constituents in Parramatta.
He acknowledges their struggles on his Labor Party profile page and laments that ‘it is becoming increasingly difficult for people to get ahead, no matter how hard they work’.
The $12 million purchase price in Palm Beach is 14.5 times the Australian median house price of $825,923 and is 8.6 times the already very expensive median price of $1.396 million in Sydney.
The four-bedroom house is located more than 50 kilometers outside his electorate of Parramatta in western Sydney
New property purchases are intended to be declared on Parliament’s monetary interest register, but Daily Mail Australia understands Dr Charlton has not yet listed the Palm Beach property as it awaits settlement.
The settlements in New South Wales will take place six weeks after the contracts are exchanged.
‘Dr. Charlton has and will continue to comply fully with parliamentary disclosure requirements,” a spokesperson for the MP said.
Dr. Charlton was a former economic adviser to former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd during the global financial crisis from 2008 to 2010.
His new home was previously owned by the late publican John Toohey and his wife Anne.
The twelve million dollars he paid was below the original asking price of fifteen million dollars Lucy Macken, the Sydney Morning Herald’s prestigious real estate reporter where Dr. Charlton was first revealed as the new owner.
Initially listed in September 2023, the Pacific Place house offers panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean and the Barrenjoey Lighthouse from the south end of Palm Beach.
It also has an infinity pool and five bathrooms.
It is Dr. Andrew Charlton’s second mansion purchase since he bought a $16.1 million home on Bellevue Hill in November 2020.
The La Palma house in Palm Beach (photo) will be rented because Dr. Charlton and his family continue to live in a $2 million Parramatta penthouse apartment – the only property purchase now recorded on his register
The house is available for short-term rental for $2,300, provided guests stay a minimum of two nights.
Dr. Charlton, a 45-year-old economist, made his fortune by founding the economic consulting and data analytics company AlphaBeta in 2015.
He sold it to US professional services group Accenture in 2020 for an undisclosed sum.
In March 2022, a Labor preselection rival for Parramatta Abha Devasia suggested that Dr Charlton’s wealth and background made him an unsuitable candidate in an electorate with a higher proportion of migrants.
“I really want Labor to win, but selecting a white millionaire from the eastern suburbs to run for Parramatta would be a tone-deaf choice and deliberately disrespectful to our community,” she told the ABC.
Like former Prime Ministers Bob Hawke, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, Dr Charlton studied at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
He sits on the House of Representatives Economic Committee, charged with questioning Reserve Bank officials about interest rate hikes as Australians battle the cost of living.
The former business executive also educated at Knox Grammar on Sydney’s North Shore, where he was school captain in 1996.
The former economic advisor to former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd during the global financial crisis (photo in April 2010) bought the house in Palm Beach in recent weeks