There are few things more predictable in Australian politics than Barnaby Joyce putting on the hat, rolling out the country bloke routine, and warning Australians that someone else is coming for their money.
Currently it is capital gains tax reform.
Appearing on breakfast television, Joyce thundered that Australians were “about to get walloped with a big new tax” if Labor moved to wind back the overly generous capital gains tax discount. It was classic Barnaby: loud, theatrical, and deeply misleading.
Because let’s be clear: adjusting an existing tax concession is not a “new tax”. It is changing a discount introduced under the John Howard government that has overwhelmingly benefited people who already own appreciating assets — particularly investment property.
Before 1999, capital gains were indexed to inflation. Then came the flat 50 per cent discount, a change many economists argue turbocharged speculation, pushed more money into housing, and helped inflate prices beyond the reach of younger Australians.
And that is where the hypocrisy begins.
Joyce and One Nation love presenting themselves as champions of battlers locked out of housing, squeezed by rents and worried about the future. They rail against elites, blame migrants, attack Canberra and point fingers everywhere except at those profiting from a distorted housing market.
But when even modest reform is proposed — reform aimed at reducing speculation and cooling incentives that reward passive gains more generously than wages — suddenly they sprint to defend investors and tax breaks for capital gains.
That is not standing up for ordinary Australians. That is standing up for the asset class while pretending to speak for the working class.
It is a familiar trick. Stir anger among those doing it tough, then redirect that anger away from wealth concentration, tax concessions and structural inequality. Talk endlessly about “Aussie battlers”, while protecting advantages for those already well ahead.
One Nation has made an art form of it. They denounce immigration as the cause of housing stress, yet oppose measures that might curb speculative demand or rebalance the tax system. The villain is always the outsider — never the investor with six properties, never the land banker, never those making fortunes from scarcity.
And let us not forget: some of the loudest voices defending these concessions are hardly strangers to wealthy interests. Populism in Australia often arrives dressed as rebellion while serving the same old money.
Barnaby Joyce knows exactly what he is doing. So does One Nation.
They are not anti-establishment. They are establishment politics in a flannel shirt and Akubra.
Too many Australians hurting from the housing crisis still mistake the performance for the substance.
With the Farrer by-election approaching, let’s hope voters don’t fall for the same old con dressed up as straight talk.
Denise McHugh is an experienced educator in Tamworth. She is Chair of the NSW ALP Education and Skills Committee and Deputy President of the Independent Education Union (IEU).
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