Greens MP reveals why he can’t afford a home

Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather has been questioned on why he doesn’t own a home despite earning an eye-watering $220,000 plus salary.

The MP for Griffith was confronted by the question at the National Press Club on Tuesday, where he debated his Coalition counterpart Michael Sukkar on housing policy.

“Out of curiosity, you’re a very highly paid senator, on a $220,000 plus salary, but you are a renter, why haven’t you purchased a home?” asked Sydney Morning Herald journalist Nick Bonyhady.

Offering an “honest answer”, Mr Chandler-Mather – who is among the top two per cent of earners in the country – revealed he is in a single-income family and gives a significant chunk of his annual salary towards a charity meal program in his electorate.

“Look, honest answer, small family, we’re on a single income and I give up about $50,000 of my salary to run all the free meal programs in the electorate,” he said.

“Using that money we serve about 50,000 free meals, including our free weekly breakfast in state schools My view is when I got elected, I was elected by a lot of people who are low-income renters and it wasn’t right for me not to give up a big portion of my salary to people who are low income.”

The 32-year-old politician added the high median house prices in the electorate only add to the difficulty.

“Because of giving up that money and being on a single income, and in an inner-city electorate with very, very high median house prices, it is difficult to buy a house there,” he continued.

“I want to be clear, though, I am not the one doing it tough – but I’m answering your question.”

The electorate of Griffith covers the inner southern suburbs of Brisbane. One up-market suburb, Bulimba, has a median house price of $1,975,000, according to realestate.com.au.

‘Utter farce’

Earlier during his address at the National Press Club, Mr Chandler-Mather accused the Liberal government of not taking any responsibility for this housing crisis and using migration as a “tool” to distract from the issues behind the ciris.

“The idea that the Liberals want Australians to be able to buy their first home is an utter farce,” he said.

“The Liberals were in power for nine years, what did they do? Give tax handouts to property investors, build less public housing than any government in Australian history since World War II, help screw over renters.

“This housing crisis isn’t just the making of the Labor Party, it’s the Liberals too.”

MP gets emotional

The Griffith MP earlier became emotional when speaking about how the housing crisis is impacting his generation during an appearance on ABC’s 7.30 on Monday night.

Asked if he felt like he was letting down young voters, Mr Chandler-Mather said: “Every day we don’t solve the housing crisis I feel like I have let them down a little bit.”

“My generation for the first time are probably going to be worse off than our parents. I feel that acutely,” he said, as his voice cracked with emotion.

“I have friends who have been kicked out of their homes because they can’t afford the rent or have given up on ever being able to buy a home And it hurts me a lot, actually, to see that. I find it really hard.”

However, he added he is hopeful the crisis will be better addressed in the lead up to next year’s federal election.

“I feel like we will be going into an election where there will be a lot of pressure on all the parties now to take real action on the housing crisis. And I think that’s a positive thing.”