But it wasn’t always this way.<\/p>\n
As bubble-bath-bound financial journalist Alan Kohler (they couldn’t afford Margot Robbie) explains in the doco, everything changed in 1999. That’s when former prime minister John Howard heavily discounted capital gains tax and ramped up negative gearing, with house prices spiralling ever upwards since.<\/p>\n
“Howard once said, ‘No-one ever complained to me about the value of their house going up,’ and that’s the issue,” Humphries says. “Owners outnumber renters two-to-one. And if you’re a politician, you’re obviously going to appeal to the majority.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Financial journalist Alan Kohler breaks down the facts in the bath.\u00a0 (Supplied: Binge)<\/p>\n
Especially when that majority includes roughly 65 per cent of our elected politicians who own at least two properties, with both Labor’s Michelle Ananda-Rajah and the LNP’s Karen Andrews having seven each.<\/p>\n
“You want to believe that those people are still capable of recognising the problem and seeing what they have to do,” Humphries says.<\/p>\n
“But it’s very hard to imagine change occurring when it’s in so many people’s best interests to keep things as they are.<\/p>\n
“But what sort of a system is that? It’s grotesque.”<\/p>\n
Pinging<\/p>\n
From The Feed on SBS to The Chaser’s War on the ABC and The Project on Network 10, Humphries and regular co-writer Evan Williams have carved sterling careers out of channelling their indignance at injustice into snort-inducing comedy.<\/p>\n
“The reality is, people don’t want to hear you ranting for over 52 minutes,” Humphries says. “It’s not appealing, so you try to help the medicine go down. But it’s coming from a true place of anger.”<\/p>\n
What exactly is negative gearing, and why is it such a big deal?<\/a><\/p>\n The policy that just won’t quit is back. Will Labor revisit its 2016 and 2019 election policies?<\/p>\n So, what does he believe is the cure for the housing crisis?<\/p>\n