The person in the image behind me is Australia’s dumbest and most dangerous politician.

I know that’s a pretty big statement, because Australia is full of politicians who are none too bright and who have ideas and policies which would be extremely damaging if they ever became law – particularly on issues relating to the housing industry.

But this character is the pick of a very bad bunch.

He’s Max Chandler-Mather, a political opportunist who started out as a member of the Labor Party but later switched to the Greens – and who appears hell-bent of making life miserable for the tenants of Australia.

Max is also hell-bent of becoming famous and loves a press conference and any opportunity to grandstand in front of the news media.

He appears to believe that he can win votes by creating the illusion that he’s the national champion of people who rent.

The problem is that his policies, if they were ever implemented, would be a disaster for the people he claims to represent.

And he’s seeking to win favour with one section of the community by demonising and vilifying another.

And that is politics at its worst.

Amid all this posturing and self-promotion, a lot of damage is being done.

And the people being worst affected are residential tenants, the very people Mad Max claims he wants to help.

The Federal Government says they plan to build 1.2 million new dwellings to alleviate the current shortages – that’s the Government a majority of Australians elected to run the country, as opposed to the Greens who received just 12% of the vote at the 2022 Federal Election and won just four of the 151 seats in the House of Representatives – 

But the Federal Government needs the support of the Greens to get that policy through the Senate and the Greens have been refusing to co-operate unless their housing policies are implemented.

That includes a rental freeze and host of other measures detrimental to the people who provide the product that’s in short supply, property investors.

Mad Max has been the public face of this ridiculous policy, which would be so onerous to property owners that they would exit the market in droves and turn a rental shortage crisis into a national catastrophe – similar to one they have in Ireland, where the government implemented all the policies being advocated by Mad Max.

Finally, after months of delays in building the much-needed new housing, the Greens have relented and agreed to support the Federal Government plan, although the Prime Minister has refused to agree to the rental freeze and other anti-investor policies because the Government recognises they would be disastrous, especially for tenants.

Now, you might wonder why Mad Max and his pals have chosen, out of all the entities putting up the price of their product in these times of high inflation, to target mum-and-dad property investors.

Because the only section of society that Mad Max is proposing to hit with a price freeze is mum-and dad-investors.

He’s not advocating a price cap on multinational oil companies with their high and rising petrol prices.

He’s not advocating a price cap on major energy corporations who are jacking up electricity prices for households across Australia.

He’s not campaigning for a price freeze on the cost of food and groceries charged by the national supermarket chains.

He’s not recommending clamps on the big banks who are announcing multi-billion-dollar profits – achieved from charging higher and higher interest rates on mortgages to Australian families.

No, he’s singling out mum-and-dad households who own an investment property.

And, all the while, trying to claim that he’s the champion of the little people.

The reality, I believe, is that Mad Max and his friends are champions of nothing but their own media profiles and really, really bad policies that would hurt the very people they claim they want to help.