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Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has suggested Australians who are opting for “incredibly expensive” homes because they want to live within 100 kilometres of a central business district, and to work in careers that can only be sustained by living within 100 kilometres of a central business district.
The Nationals leader told ABC RN Drive that those who cannot afford a home in Sydney or Melbourne should consider moving to much shitter areas, where it is cheaper to buy property.
Mr Joyce made his provocative comments after being questioned about a new survey which rates Sydney’s housing as less affordable than New York or London and whether the Government was doing enough to address the issue.
“The thing is, if you want to live in Sydney as a first home buyer – you need to be rocking two $100,000 plus incomes”
“So technically, you can only be a first home buyer in Sydney if you married with no kids and on a wage higher than majority of Australians under 35 are on”
The Minister For Agriculture went on to point out that living in the city is simply unsustainable for young people, unless someone does something about the fact that the average wages for people under 35 have only increased 3% in the last 30 years – and need to be scaled accordingly Australians over 50 enjoy an averaged wag increase of over 30%, which isn’t going to happen.
“Entering the housing market is easy. Just give up on having a job in finance, media, law, town planning, state services or anything else that would require you to be in a city”
“There’s plenty of rehab and counselling jobs going in Bourke right now, why would anyone be wanting to work as a nurse or paramedic in Sydney right now”
Joyce has advised young Australians to pick between working in education, agribusiness or mining – that’s if they want to own a home and be able to get to work in under 2 hours each day.
“We’ve got plenty of jobs in Boggabilla, plenty in Wilcannia. Why does everyone feel the need to live in metropolitan areas with more than four types of occupations”
“Our state governments have made it clear that they aren’t interesting in stemming the flow of overseas investors into our cities vacant apartment buildings, so this is your only option”
“Please don’t stop eating smashed avocado, though. Avocado farmers are some of my safest constituents”
Or you could sell your soul flogging some dodgy super scheme, that’ll get you some easy dosh.