Owning your own home in Australia…? Tell ‘em they’re dreamin’! 

Darryl Kerrigan is a legend who transcends generations. That’s because he embodies everything it means to be Australian.

He is a hardworking man who runs his own tow-truck business to support his family.

He’s happily married to Sal, who, as well as making restaurant-worthy rissoles and sponge cakes, serves up the finest ice cream… Her secret…? Scooping it out of the punnet!

He is a proud father of four. Tracey is a fully qualified hairdresser. Wayne robbed a petrol station – which is arguably fair play these days with what we’re paying at the pump. Dale once dug a hole, and Steve is an ‘ideas man’.

All sides of federal politics would do well to revisit this Australian classic – because the Darryl Kerrigans of Australia – which is the vast majority – seem to have fallen into the Bermuda Triangle of bureaucracy.

Take Labor’s private healthcare cuts to pensioners or its intergenerational housing reforms, for example.

Current legislation takes less of a baseball bat to billionaires and punishes the people who’ve built our nation on the back of blood, sweat and tears. People like Darryl Kerrigan.

Darryl is no fat-cat property mogul. He saved up enough to afford a humble holiday home in Bonnie Doon… If he were sitting on the back deck right now (taking in the serenity), he may well be saying, ‘How’s the hypocrisy???’

Here’s a man who pays his taxes, and now the government wants to tax him more for an investment property that he saved up for fair and square.

Darryl wasn’t wealthy, but he didn’t feel poor. As he would say, ‘You can’t buy what I’ve got.’

‘A man’s home is his castle.’

The purpose of the Federal Government’s housing reform was to make owning a home achievable. Fair call. And something that no other government of any political persuasion is yet to achieve.

Just over three months on… House sales have taken a dive and so have house prices, both of which the Federal Government says aren’t its fault. Even though house prices have gone down, they’re still not within spitting distance of affordable, which the Federal Government also says isn’t its fault. And with a decline in investment property sales, rent prices have gone UP, which the Federal Government says DEFINITELY isn’t its fault.

I’m no economist, but I think the technical term for Australia’s current housing market is ‘utterly cooked’.

However, the chefs on the other side of the kitchen – the Federal Opposition – aren’t exactly coming up with any MasterChef-worthy dishes either. Achieving home ownership is quickly transitioning from a life goal to a blood sport.

The SAS Group hosted John Anderson this week, who served as Deputy Prime Minister for six of the Howard Government years. I asked him what the answer to housing affordability is.

In a nutshell, he said, ‘Tax people less so they can save more to buy a house.’

Maybe he’s right. Maybe he’s not. But perhaps kicking every Kerrigan – aka the typical Aussie voter – while they’re down isn’t ideal.

Anthony Albanese is lauded within certain Labor circles for being one of the most formidable long-term political strategists of his era. So, who knows? Maybe what seems like ‘legislative lunacy’ may end up being an act of genius.

But the average punter does not feel like they’re living in the lucky country right now. We feel like we’re being dudded… just like Darryl did when they tried to steal his castle.

I don’t know the answer to the housing affordability crisis. But I’m willing to hang my hat on this: whichever politician cracks the code – that legislation is going straight to the pool room.