Former frontline doctor Gordon Reid, the Central Coast federal MP, is presumably the last Labor Party politician to ever buy an investment property in Canberra.
He has just updated his pecuniary interest statement on his $750,000 Kingston apartment purchase. He has another investment property in his electorate.
He’s been rather slow at advising the parliament of the purchase, but title office indicated it was exchanged 11 weeks before the May federal budget, which sought to facilitate first-home buyers “winning” weekend auctions rather than investors.
MORE: Jackie O’s cunning $30m exit plan amid Kyle payout
Central Coast MP Gordon Reid has bought an investment property in Canberra. Picture: realestate.com.au
Reid’s two-bedroom, two-bathroom, two balcony-bolthole was bought at auction in February this year, settled in March, and notified on his pecuniary interest statement earlier this month.
It had been a $650-a-week rental property when advertised in 2023 and at $720 in 2022. He won his seat in 2022.
The parliamentary records reveals 31 Labor MPs own Canberra properties, 22 from the Coalition, and one on the crossbench.
They include Jerome Laxale, the ALP member for Bennelong, on Sydney’s lower north shore, who bought his $602,000 two-bedroom Kingston investment apartment within three months of his 2022 win. It had a $490-a-week tenant at the time of purchase.
MORE: How David Jones signed its own death warrant
Gordon Reid. Central Coast federal MP
This week, Speaker Milton Dick said he didn’t want the parliament to “open up a can of worms” for MPs “to be criticised” in regard to their property holdings when debating the controversial overhaul of housing taxation policy regarding negative gearing and the longstanding capital gains tax discount.
MORE: Bombshell immigration finding exposed
Reid’s investment home sits in this Kingston building.
Tetchy Housing Minister Clare O’Neil rejected accusations of hypocrisy regarding property ownership and profits taken by herself and colleagues over recent years under the Costello-Howard scheme. “The reforms that are before the parliament with regard to housing are not about the 150 people who sit in this chamber,” O’Neil said.
MORE: Australia’s $85bn savings crisis exposed
English (US) · 