Independent senator Nick Xenophon is calling for greater transparency for MPs who use taxpayer-funded allowances to pay off houses in Canberra, accusing the Government of "dog whistling" on home ownership.

The call follows Treasurer Joe Hockey's advice to first-home buyers to "get a good job that pays good money".

When in Canberra, Mr Hockey stays in the exclusive suburb of Forrest at a house he and his wife own.

The house is valued at about $2 million and was bought in 1997 for $320,000.

As a politician, Mr Hockey also legitimately claims a $270-a-night allowance for travel to the capital.

In the past he has rented rooms in the property to other politicians.

Senator Xenophon told the ABC's Lateline program that the public had a right to know how their money was being used.

"If an MP is using their allowance to pay off a home for themselves or for their spouse, I don't think it's unfair to require transparency," he said.

A recently retired senator confirmed to the ABC that it is common practice for politicians in the major parties to buy a house in Canberra and use their travel allowance to pay off the mortgage.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-10/hockeys-housing-comments-prompt-call-for-mp-rent-transparency/6536146

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Meanwhile:

Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens says he is "very concerned" about Sydney's property market, parts of which he has described as "crazy".

Addressing a business lunch in Brisbane, Mr Stevens said the RBA was prepared to cut the cash rate again if needed, adding that it will be "quite some time before we even think about interest rates going up".

But he said Sydney's property price boom was "acutely concerning", even though most other capital city property markets were not rising strongly.

"I am very concerned about Sydney, I think some of what's happening is crazy, but we've got a national focus to manage as well - that just increases the complexity," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-10/rba-governor-stevens-says-weak-economy-leaves-rate-cuts-open/6535718

see also: 

and to get a good job that pays money so you can borrow money from the banks:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/10/want-a-job-that-pays-good-money-join-the-department-of-immigration

Joe Hockey’s less-than-helpful advice to would-be homeowners on Tuesday that they just need to “get a good job that pays good money” wasn’t just out of touch, it didn’t make sense.

Just like his infamous remark last year about the poorest people either not having cars or not driving very far, the “get a good job” line was out of touch and politically inept. And, like the previous gaffe, the more you look at it, the more questions it raises.

Does the treasurer think housing affordability a problem or doesn’t he?

With prices skyrocketing, more people now borrowing for investment properties than for houses they want to live in and Sydney mortgages for first homebuyers at record lows, most people think it is. Hockey thought so too in April, when he emerged from a meeting with state treasurers to announce a new “housing affordability taskforce”.

“We had a further discussion on housing in Australia and we are particularly alarmed at the inability of young people to be able to access the housing market in a way they previously have been,” he said at the time.

But when the ALP raised housing affordability and fears of a Sydney housing “bubble” the government accused the opposition of wanting houses to be worth less, or as Hockey put it on Wednesday to “smash house prices”. If housing affordability is a problem then, however a policymaker chooses to address it, surely the outcome is for house prices to increase at a slower rate – ie for houses to be worth less than than if nothing was done. So is it a problem, Joe, or isn’t it?

If it is a problem, does getting a good job solve it?

With house prices in Sydney rising five times faster than wages growth over the past two years and homeowners in the city already paying on average 35% of their income on mortgage repayments, often it would not. Especially if the good job is one that doesn’t come with particularly good pay, like those of many essential service providers.

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jun/10/joe-hockeys-get-a-good-job-gaffe-isnt-just-out-of-touch-it-doesnt-make-sense

Note: the treasurer is also worried about "his kids being able to afford a house..."

As well, since Hockey and his Turd-in-Chief took over the economy, unemployment has been rising (not by so much, though — because many PEOPLE ARE DESPERATE TO DO ANYTHING FOR FAR LESS CASH), the problem is not going away...

There is now no chance an Abbott-Hockey Government will seek re-election in 2016; or 2015. It is just possible Abbott will be 'on the ticket'. It is certain Hockey will be vanquished, abolished, extinct by this year’s end.

This is because he is an idiot, and is seen to be, by almost all the electorate. His assertion that "poor people don’t drive cars" drew many to the hypothesis that he didn’t know what he was talking about; and his latest view, that "Sydney houses must be affordable because they’re still being bought", and the way, moreover, to get one was to secure in your twenties a high-paying job, is evidence, maybe, of brain damage, perhaps occurring during his stomach stapling by a conspiracy of anaesthetists.

Or … there may be another explanation. It’s possible, just possible, that he’s a typical fat whinger, rich-born, rich-schooled, rich-wed, unathletic, resentful, charmless and mentally second-rate, who cannot abide being bested in an argument, and always has to answer back. Instead of saying, sometimes, "yeah, fair enough", he feels deep in his bones he has to yell "but the opposite is true!" before he knows what his next sentence is.

68 per cent of the under-25s are already voting or preferring Labor. That number will be up to 75 percent after a few more days of talkback about Joe being "out of touch". This means, must mean, no Liberal government can win, or even come close, with Joe Hockey in it.

I will lay odds on this.

read more; https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-idiocy-of-joe-hockey,7816

At issue are claims that Mr Guo was granted approval to buy the historic Windermere residence for $11.45 million last August on the basis he would also add to the existing housing stock by building a new residence.

Mr Hockey was informed that the housing stock in question was simply a granny flat on the property, saying in a radio interview on radio 3AW: "I referred one of my own neighbours and found out they had got approval on pretty spurious grounds."

But Ms Liu said work on the already DA-approved plans for a second residence on the property is set to start in a matter of weeks.

read more: http://news.domain.com.au/domain/real-estate-news/treasurer-joe-hockeys-neighbour-hits-back-at-claims-about-spurious-purchase-20150612-ghme3j.html