So Mr Latham thinks he has a problem. If elected Prime Minister this year, he is worried that he will have two houses, one in Sydney and the other in Canberra. He made the point that it is only possible to sleep in one bed at a time. A man with small children should know better. Most children have no trouble sleeping in three beds in the same night: their own, their parents and the spare bed to which the parents have fled in desperation.
Mr Latham seems to have forgotten one extra bed made available to the PM at taxpayers expense. This is the bed in the flatette located in the PM’s office in Parliament House itself, a curious facility given that the Lodge is so handy. Perhaps the architects of the house considered it a risk to stable government to allow a sleepy Prime Minister to walk in on his wife in the middle of the afternoon. Or maybe they thought that the resting place of power would be a tourist attraction when, in due course, the new house becomes too small and has to be superseded by one still further up the hill with more room for security staff. Presumably, Mr Latham intends to make the flatette available to the homeless of Canberra for emergency accommodation.
The real issue for Mr Latham is what to do with Kirribilli House. Unlike Mr Howard, who never wanted to live anywhere else, Mr Latham does not appear to want to reside there. It is rare for Mr Latham to be so out of touch with his constituency. He has done well so far on a list of populist ideas. He should realise that, if he doesn’t want to live in a harbourside mansion, then he is one of the few aspirational voters in Australia who doesn’t.
Yet Kirribilli House holds the key to Mr Latham’s success. The only policy Mr Latham needs to take to the next election is a clear plan for Kirribilli House.
He should raffle it.
The policy goes like this. Labor promises, if elected, to give every citizen a free ticket in the raffle.
There is one prize: Kirribilli House. Winner takes all. Elements within the Labor Party will protest that this is a regressive system, that the rich will have as much chance of winning as the poor. Fair point. Let’s give those on the top marginal tax rate