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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