![\"Karl](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/8c50b3df29f0bcf7c5c79c2544a28eba75538e424ae1fbc71e23b5ac052c5337.png\")
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Hughesy, do we have a problem? That question has been top of mind since mid-May, when Dave Hughes<\/a>, one of the most successful and popular comedians in the country, began venting his intense disapproval of the changes to the tax system<\/a> that Labor unveiled in the federal budget.<\/p>\n In a series of video posts<\/a> to his social media accounts, and in interviews on breakfast TV and with businessman Mark Bouris, Hughes unleashed on the changes, painting himself as a lifelong Labor supporter who was ditching the party in disgust at the fact that Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers hadn\u2019t revealed their plans before last year\u2019s election.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t not take that to an election, that\u2019s not the way the system works,\u201d he tells me. \u201cThat\u2019s just not democratic.\u201d<\/p>\n Regardless of the accuracy of that claim, there\u2019s nothing remotely funny about the way Hughes hammers his points home. Sure, he delivers his video rants<\/a> with the bug-eyed, gap-toothed, deranged-grin demeanour he\u2019s always employed in his stand-up comedy work. But here it\u2019s deployed in service of a campaign that is deadly serious.<\/p>\n And while it\u2019s getting plenty of attention for Hughes, whose peak popularity as a performer could arguably be behind him, it\u2019s also made him a figure of ridicule for some in the comedy scene, where suspicion runs hot that his outrage is merely naked self-interest at play.<\/p>\n Fellow comedian Dave Thornton tapped the mood last week in a pair of video shorts in which he impersonates the former radio host while going about his daily business, finding endless reasons to be furious at Albo.<\/p>\n \u201cTrying to get some milk for Hughesy,\u201d he says, imitating the real Hughes\u2019 Strine-whine as he opens the door of his fridge. \u201cAwww, there\u2019s none heeere. I reckon Albo\u2019s taken the milk! He\u2019s taking everything.\u201d Door slams.<\/p>\n In the second video \u2013 A day in the life of Hughesy pt2 \u2013 he takes a cold shower after voting for the blue tap rather than the red, then cries that \u201cAlbo\u2019s taken hot water away from hard-working Australians\u201d, before noting there\u2019s \u201cshrinkage \u2026 it\u2019s like the economy, it\u2019s getting smaller\u201d.<\/p>\n Together, those videos have racked up about 2 million views on Instagram, and about half that figure on Facebook. They\u2019ve also drawn approving comments from many of Hughes\u2019 fellow comedians \u2013 Celia Pacquola<\/a>, Luke McGregor<\/a>, Merrick Watts<\/a> and Rhys Nicholson among them (journalist and author Antoinette Lattouf is a fan, too).<\/p>\n Even Hughes\u2019 former radio co-host Dave O\u2019Neil has apparently chipped in on social media.<\/p>\n If Hughes is hurt by this, he\u2019s trying hard not to show it.<\/p>\n \u201cA few comedians having a swing at me because I\u2019m not supporting Labor \u2013 I couldn\u2019t care less, honestly,\u201d he tells me.<\/p>\n Still, it must sting.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not holding a grudge,\u201d says Hughes (Thornton and O\u2019Neil both declined to comment for this story). \u201cAnyway, whatever. Fair enough.\u201d<\/p>\n Hughes did take Thornton\u2019s bait, though, posting a comment of his own on his first video. \u201cI don\u2019t drink milk and I don\u2019t negative gear and everything in Australia isn\u2019t on the left,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n For his detractors, it was just more proof that he\u2019d lost both the plot and the ability to laugh at himself.<\/p>\n He tells me that he reached out to Thornton directly. \u201cI called him, I said, \u2018Mate, you know I love the impersonation, but can you just stick to the facts of what I say\u2019. I don\u2019t say all I hate is tax, and I\u2019ve never said I hated negative gearing because, mate, I never negative geared any property.\u201d<\/p>\n Hughes says his beef stems from the fact that Labor did not take its plans for tax reform to the election in May 2025, and in his view that means it does not have the support of voters for those changes. \u201cThere\u2019s no mandate for it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n It\u2019s true that Albanese repeatedly promised there would be no changes to property taxes<\/a>, and it\u2019s true that many people besides Hughes see that as a breach of trust. But it\u2019s also true that Labor broke that promise because home ownership was rapidly becoming an unobtainable dream<\/a> for many young Australians, and something had to change.<\/p>\n If you already own property, you benefit from escalating prices. And as his critics readily and rightly point out, Hughes does already own property \u2013 quite a lot of it, in fact (including a house from The Block that he bought for a bit over $3 million in 2017, and the 1930s bungalow he \u201caccidentally\u201d bought in 2010<\/a>, then demolished to make way for the home in which he and his family still live).<\/p>\n Though he and his wife, Holly Ife, have had mortgages in the past, Hughes claims he doesn\u2019t owe the banks any money now \u2013 which is one reason the changes to negative gearing make no impact on him.<\/p>\n The trouble is, the fact that he carries no debt on a property portfolio likely to be worth about $10 million does little to counter the argument that he\u2019s wealthy, out-of-touch and simply trying to pass off self-interest as speaking for the little person.<\/p>\n He told Bouris\u2019 Straight Talk podcast<\/a> this week that he once made the mistake of borrowing a large sum of money to invest in the sharemarket, shortly before the GFC, then found himself having to repay a chunk of the loan at short notice when the bank made a margin call. It was, he said, a sobering lesson that he has taken to heart.<\/p>\n \u201cI f—ing hate debt,\u201d he tells me. And in a sense, that hatred is what\u2019s driving his tirades against Labor.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government have to come to their senses because they\u2019re sending us to financial oblivion,\u201d he says. \u201cThe debt\u2019s rising and rising and rising to the point where we won\u2019t be able to do anything. It\u2019s actually really dangerous for our future.\u201d<\/p>\n Hughes\u2019 delivery is insistent, chatty, persuasive \u2026 and not always accurate. In an Instagram post last week he claimed (incorrectly) that Australia is the highest taxed country. He also claimed (again wrongly) that \u201cmost\u201d of the money for Victoria\u2019s Big Build \u2013 which is delivering massive once-in-a-generation infrastructure to the state \u2013 is being \u201cstolen\u201d. Though it is indeed beset by serious allegations of large-scale corruption<\/a>, which has contributed to a substantial rise in costs<\/a>, \u201cmost\u201d money is nonetheless going to the build.<\/p>\n Related Article In that video, he explained his sense of mission. \u201cThat\u2019s what I do,\u201d he said. \u201cI whinge for the people who don\u2019t have a profile.\u201d He claims he is stopped every time he walks down the street by people telling him to keep it up.<\/p>\n After he and I speak, Hughes sends me a barrage of messages he claims to have received from such people. \u201cKeep going legend!\u201d \u201cThank you so much for what you\u2019re doing.\u201d \u201cSo angry with Albo too.\u201d \u201cKeep pushing the word as you\u2019re making a difference!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m drowning in these messages, mate,\u201d he tells me. \u201cI could send you thousands.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure he could, too. His angry-rant videos are clocking up hundreds of thousands of views, occasionally millions. The comments they garner are as supportive as those on Thornton\u2019s feed are critical.<\/p>\n Hughes, who grew up in a working-class home in Warrnambool, has built a career on looking and sounding like a regular working stiff with an uncanny eye for the absurd, and it\u2019s earned him legions of fans. It also earned him about $2 million a year at his peak, across stand-up, television, radio and corporate gigs.<\/p>\n Hughes insists his wealth is principally a result of application, diligence and frugality. But it\u2019s easy to paint debt as a product of lazy thinking, or laziness, when you don\u2019t have any.<\/p>\n \u201cI know people don\u2019t understand what I\u2019m talking about, and they get angry at me because they think I\u2019m rich and I don\u2019t want other people to be rich,\u201d he says. \u201c[But] I\u2019m doing this because I want other people to have the opportunity to get ahead in this world.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Who\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/d9591c68817ad319420dcdeccd131a9def61c8f9.jpeg\")
Who\u2019s not laughing now: Dave Hughes outside Luna Park, St Kilda, this week.Simon Schluter<\/p>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/e624bc68302ac84387985d08395454381f2b54cf.jpeg\")
In 2010, comedian Dave Hughes \u201caccidentally\u201d purchased a 1930s Spanish mission-inspired house at auction.Annette O\u2019Brien<\/p>\n![\"National](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0597835971437467350d075299be3a4dfefb7189.jpeg\")
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![\"Dave](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/c6d7f8ceea7b421a6d84c0387ea0dd18e6215a89.jpeg\")
Dave Hughes: \u201cIt looks like I\u2019m a druggie, I\u2019m not.\u201dSimon Schluter<\/p>\n