“Lord” Andrew Charlton is back with more public policy questions about his collection of palaces:
Labor MP Andrew Charlton has refused to say if he’ll be eligible for five of the Albanese government’s $300 energy rebates on his five properties, as he defended the decision not to means test the payments.
The Member for Parramatta was the focus of a post-budget Coalition attack in question time, questioning if he – a person who “had to relocate from Bellevue Hill to Parramatta for work reasons and happens to own five houses, including a newly acquired $12m beach house in Palm Beach” – would be eligible for the rebate on all five homes.
Asked the same question on Sunday morning, Mr Charlton told Sky News’ Sunday Agenda program: “For each house where that house is tenanted and the tenant is paying the energy bill, the tenant is eligible for that rebate. Where a house is owned by an individual, that individual is eligible for the rebate.”
So, is he eligible? Surely, both tenant and owner can’t simultaneously be eligible? That would be lunacy.
And let’s not forget what this is really about.
I rang Lord Charlton in person the week of his election and warned him that Labor must act immediately to cap gas costs, or a catastrophic inflation shock was headed our way.
And here we are two years later, offering $3bn in energy “rebates”, nothing more than subsidies for the profiteering he was warned was coming.
Why doesn’t Lord Charlton do something about the real problem?
The gas cartel is ratcheting gas prices higher again now, above 13Gj spot, well north of Albo’s supposed contract price cap:
With a new electricity price shock following along as usual:
Why? Because Lord Charlton has access to your endless tax dollars to “rebate” you with.
