The “Fake Tradie” video that has surfaced is rather funny. The tradie (who the Liberal Party says is a real businessperson) complains about the injustice about to be handed to his bank by a Labor government.

The issue with this video isn’t whether it is a real tradie or not. The issue with the ad is that it reveals that the Liberal Party is out of touch with what the Australian public thinks is important. Is a second investment home important to the majority of Australians? Considering that many people cannot afford their first home, let alone a second, this message sounds like the rich crying poor at the masses. Meanwhile, important issues like education, science, and healthcare are ignored.

It gives us a signal about the type of Australia the Liberal Party has in mind: protect the super-rich, to placate the upper-middle-class. But a society where the only way to pull yourself up is by owning someone else’s house will necessarily result in many people not being able to pull themselves up.

This is not an argument against property investors, simply a point about what “struggling” means. Property investors are useful in building houses and providing rental accommodation. However, if you own your own home AND someone else’s, you aren’t struggling. You’re a “have”, not a “have not”.