How many properties do politicians own? A public register of their interests provides the answer

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Prime Minister's purchase of a multi-million-dollar home in New South Wales has prompted an ABC analysis of the financial disclosures of MPs and Senators. It shows the PM is not alone in owning prime real estate.

Transcript

00:00Most MPs own not only one property, most MPs own multiple properties.

00:07That's what the financial disclosures that MPs and Senators are required to make to parliamentary

00:12committees tell us.

00:13We pored over the figures yesterday and they show that only 12 MPs and Senators across

00:19the Parliament own no property whatsoever, just the 12 of them.

00:24And even within that group, we can't be sure that that's 12 renters.

00:28So we do know that a couple of people in that group are the Greens housing spokesperson

00:31Max Chandler-Mather, Stephen Bates and Labor's Josh Burns, among them are renters.

00:36But partly because of some patchy disclosures, partly because some of these people have trusts

00:41or might own companies that own real estate, even then we can't be entirely sure that we're

00:45seeing a full picture of the asset holdings.

00:47But even then, these are the only 12 that have not declared that they own any property

00:50whatsoever.

00:51Beyond those 12, it's really pretty much a third, a third, a third, beginning with the

00:56third who own just the one home.

00:58That group includes a lot of notable politicians, including Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

01:03He used to own multiple properties, but he made quite a few million dollars when he sold

01:07two of the properties in his portfolio in the last few years.

01:10Greens Leader Adam Bant is one of the other ones who owns one home, Senator Jackie Lambie

01:15also in that group.

01:16Quite a political cross-section, as you can see, about one third of MPs in that group

01:20who own pretty much their own home.

01:23Another third of MPs own two homes.

01:25This is a group that includes the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the Finance Minister, among

01:29others.

01:30Once again, you'll see it's a very cross-partisan group.

01:32Now, there are a couple of reasons why MPs typically might own two houses, and one of

01:37them is that they spend a lot of time in this place behind me, in Parliament House in Canberra.

01:42A lot of them have Canberra pads in the vicinity of Parliament House, and that might be one

01:45reason why they own two.

01:47For others, it might be an investment property or a holiday home.

01:50But the largest group, ever so slightly the largest group, is those who own three or more.

01:5477 MPs in that category.

01:57Once again, 77 MPs across the party, Labor, Coalition, Greens and Crossbenchers, who own

02:03quite large portfolios.

02:04In some cases, several investment properties scattered across the country.

02:08Top of the list is Labor's Michelle Anandarajah and the Liberal MP, Karen Andrews.

02:13They've got seven apiece.

02:14There are a handful with six and a handful with five.

02:17It's worth pointing out, this is 34% of MPs that own multiple properties, compared to

02:21just 1% of Australians who are in that category.

02:23To some extent, that might be what we expect, because politicians earn an above average

02:27income, and so that might be partly what explains these property holdings.

02:31But an interesting insight, as I say, that comes from poring over these documents.

02:34Absolutely.

02:35Tell us a bit more, Tom, about where this data comes from.

02:39Politicians are required by parliamentary committees to make disclosures about not just

02:43their property holdings, but any assets they hold, any gifts they receive, any memberships

02:48that they have.

02:49Basically, the idea is to give a general picture of their holdings and their financial interests

02:54to avoid, I suppose, any perception of conflicts of interest.

02:57These disclosures vary a little bit.

02:59As I say, they're set by parliamentary committees.

03:01There's some discretion that can be applied to how the politicians make these disclosures.

03:05The rules are slightly different.

03:06For example, senators don't have to publish details about what their spouses own, whereas

03:10members of the House of Representatives do.

03:12There are also some parts where we can't always see the full picture.

03:15For example, MPs that use trusts, just like trusts all over the tax system.

03:19When MPs declare trusts, we don't know an awful lot about what's in them.

03:22So there is an incomplete picture here that we get of assets.

03:25But it's fair to say that this means that we know a fair bit more and we're able to

03:29do this sort of analysis about MPs, which we certainly wouldn't be able to do about

03:32most Australians.

03:33It gives us an interesting picture of the financial situation of our elected representatives.

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