Albo quizzed over luxury home purchase

Anthony Albanese has been grilled by Karl Stefanovic over the recent purchase of a multi-million dollar home, that was widely slammed by the public as being "out of touch". 

As part of his pre-election campaign, the Prime Minister and his fiancé Jodie Haydon sat down with 60 Minutes where they discussed the controversial real estate move. 

Karl Stefanovic described as the $4.1 million purchase of the Copacabana holiday home as “harebrained", as Albo defended his decision to buy the home. 

“Whose harebrained idea was Copacabana?” Stefanovic asked as the program began.

Mr Albanese, who is notoriously sensitive about the purchase amid claims it was tone-deaf during a cost-of-living crisis, laughed at the question as he responded, “Look, Jodie and I are getting married.”

“What you don’t do is move into the family home where Carmel and I raised Nathan together as a family. And guess what, Karl? At some stage … I won’t be Prime Minister into my 80s and therefore we have bought a place close to where Jodie grew up … where her family are all based.”

In the program, Stefanovic observed that, “I’ve spent some time with her these last couple of days and I get the feeling the girl from the Central Coast would sooner rather than later have her feet up at Copacabana, whether you are there or not!”

“No — well, she’s a Coastie and a proud one,” Mr Albanese replied. “And it was very much a personal decision, not a political one. And I think Australians get that.”

Karl then asked about the controversy around the home, asking the PM, “Did it sting you at all the criticism around that, the perception being during a cost-of-living crisis, the PM shouldn’t be seen as being, you know, so lavish?” 

Albanese responded, “I’m pretty resilient, Karl, and if you’re worried about every bit of criticism that was out there, then life would be much more difficult than it is."

Image credits: 60 Minutes