Melbourne’s housing market is one of the world’s most expensive, and rife with underquoting. You might think a state government that has been in power for the past 11 years might be motivated to improve the way property is bought and sold.
This masthead’s Building Blind investigation analysed 25,830 Melbourne properties and found 52 per cent sold above the top end of the guide – thus wasting the time and money of people unaware they have been priced out of a property before the bidding starts.
Premier Jacinta Allan and Minister for Consumer Affairs Nick Staikos.Credit: Joe Armao
The landmark series has managed to unite the opposition, the Greens, consumer bodies and even the real estate industry in demanding greater disclosure and fairness in the housing market.
But the Allan government? Besides calling underquoting all sorts of mean names – “shabby”, “cruel, callous and unethical” – it argues Victoria has the strongest underquoting rules in the country, and seemed quite unperturbed about the gaps exposed by our investigation.
“We’ve actually led the nation in this space. We have the strongest laws against underquoting in Australia,” said Consumer Affairs Minister Nick Staikos on Tuesday.
The government is also staring down calls from former property industry leader Enzo Raimondo to release a 2022 report he co-wrote on the market. Raimondo was commissioned by the government to consider if the laws governing the state’s property market, including underquoting, could be improved. This report has never been made public.
Why not release the report, Staikos was asked on Tuesday.
Staikos then mounted what can only be described as an interesting argument that what the state Labor government did three years ago was no longer relevant.
“That review is a cabinet document from the last term of government,” Staikos explained. “I don’t think we should be hung up on a report from the last term of government that is a cabinet document.”
Tell that to a young person who doesn’t have a bank of mum and dad, or remember Jeff Kennett as premier.
Snoop Dogg’s lucrative jobby job
Generation X scored a rare win when it was confirmed that US rapper Snoop Dogg would perform at this year’s AFL grand final.
While Snoop scored the lucrative gig, Age journalist Sam McClure reported on Tuesday that a grand final audience with Kylie Minogue, recently robbed in Triple J’s Hottest 100 Australian songs, was not to be again. It will be an afternoon opening bounce again this year, you see, and the Queen of Pop has made it clear in the past she wanted to perform at night. Please reconsider Kylie – we need some women’s voices on the day.
AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon is a Snoop Doog fan.Credit: Getty Images
CBD was chuffed to learn that AFL boss Andrew Dillon’s favourite Snoop Dogg song is Gin and Juice, a 1993 hit with not-suitable-for-children lyrics and a film clip that starts: “Snoop Doggy Dogg need to get a jobby job.”
This jobby job is expected to make Snoop millions, with Dillon confirming he’ll be paid about the same as last year’s act Katy Perry, and would perform in a “family friendly” way.
Dillon said Snoop barracked for Western Bulldogs, his favourite player was mullet king Bailey Smith and the performer was already practising his hand balling ahead of the big day. Perhaps he could give West Coast some pointers.
Fear not – Mike Brady will perform his anthem Up There Cazaly. “There will be collaborations ... and I’m sure we’ll see a lot of Australian talent as part of the pre-game entertainment,” Dillon promised.
Snoop hasn’t always been welcome in Australia. Convicted of drug and gun possession in the ’90s and acquitted of murder in 1996, Snoop was once banned from the country on character grounds, but that decision was later reversed.
Don’t worry about another Novak Djokovic-style quick eviction: Snoop Dogg last toured here in 2023 and government sources expect no problems with his visa.
The AFL would love Kylie Minogue to perform at an AFL grand final.
More recently, Snoop worked as a special correspondent for NBC’s Paris Olympics coverage, sitting alongside former jailbird Martha Stewart, and performed at the well-received 2022 Super Bowl half-time show.
So, can Snoop win over the ’G on its special day? In a recent Age poll that asked readers to rank him among recent AFL grand final acts KISS, Perry and Melbourne’s adopted son Robbie Williams, Snoop came in last.
Matt Brown goes from Beirut to Brisbane
ABC veteran Matt Brown is starting a new gig in Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ media team
In the months since Anthony Albanese’s landslide election win, dozens of Labor staff have traded the Canberra bubble for a regular social life and left politics behind. But as is tradition after any election, the door revolves the other way too. The latest signing for the government is ABC veteran Matt Brown, a foreign correspondent whose near-30-year career with the public broadcaster took him to the likes of Indonesia and the Middle East.
Brown has traded Beirut for Brisbane and is about to start a new gig in Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ media team, CBD hears. Brown isn’t the first Aunty alum to join Team Jim. In 2023, this column reported that Chalmers had hired former ABC “golden boy” Nick Hayden, the one-time head of entertainment with a hand in hit shows like Spicks and Specks, as a speechwriter.
That gig lasted a year, before Hayden jumped across the aisle to join teal bank rollers Climate 200 as their head of media and communications. Hopefully, Brown is more of a True Believer.
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