Stan Grant Q+A: Labor MP Michelle Ananda-Rajah accused of being ‘condescending’ by member of public

A Labor MP from a wealthy constituency was forced by outgoing ABC Q+A host Stan Grant to discuss the fact that she owns seven investment properties – before angering a member of the public welcoming the benefits of a budget surplus.

Michelle Ananda-Rajah, who surprisingly won Higgins’ seat in central Melbourne with Green preferences in last year’s federal election, suggested that a now-black government spending plan was good for younger generations.

“By delivering a modest little budget surplus, it will actually mean $83 billion less debt on the shoulders of young people over the next 12 years,” she said.

That angry audience member Amy Brown who spoke about Dr. Ananda-Rajah repeatedly shouting “stop it” during an episode ending with Grant’s emotional goodbye after a racist trolling.

‘It’s really condescending. I’m so sorry, you’re condescending to me,” she said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers this month announced a budget surplus of $4.2 billion for 2022-23 – the first for a federal Labor government since 1989 and the first for Australia since 2007.

But Ms Brown, a self-described millennial, was unimpressed, likening the budget surplus to the big banks making big profits after 11 Reserve Bank interest rate hikes – drawing applause from the program’s left-leaning audience ABC.

‘You want to know why the budget surplus, everyone is so crazy about it?

“Do you want to know why it’s so on the nose?”

“Because it’s exactly the same as the banks that have their surplus thanks to rising interest rates.”

Dr Ananda-Rajah, who owns seven investment properties in Melbourne, Brisbane and greater Tasmania, previously said the scheme removing negative gear tax breaks for investor landlords would do nothing to boost housing supply rental.

“That doesn’t solve the supply problem,” she said.

Pressed by host Grant, Dr Ananda-Rajah admitted she was one of 84 MPs, out of 227 in Parliament, who owned more than three investment properties.

“Of course, and green senators,” she said to boos from the audience, not mentioning senator and deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi who owns two investment properties in New South Wales and one in Pakistan.

Dr Ananda-Rajah’s defense of the Labor government’s budget surplus angered audience member Amy Brown, who spoke out about Dr Ananda-Rajah, repeatedly shouting ‘Stop it’.

“I would say the problem is that investors who invest in real estate – they end up renting it, they rent it and that’s what I’ve done with my properties.”

Former Labor leader Bill Shorten had lost the 2019 election on a promise to remove negative gearing for future investment property purchases.

Ms Brown, an accountant, also got stuck in Ms Ananda-Rajah for defending her Labor Party’s support for the former Coalition Government’s Stage Three tax cuts, which were passed into law in 2019.

The Labor backbench MP, who was an infectious disease doctor at Alfred Health before winning a former Liberal blue ribbon seat in May 2022, said the government must keep an election promise.

“We legislated them and we made a commitment not to repeal them,” she said.

Defending Stage Three tax cuts – which will award $9,075 to those earning $200,000 from July 1, 2024 – enraged Ms Brown even further after Dr Ananda-Rajah said she could see his distress.

“It’s not distress, it’s rage,” Ms Brown said.

Michelle Ananda-Rajah last year surprisingly won Higgins’ seat in central Melbourne with Green preferences, and suggested a blackout spending plan was good for younger generations (she is pictured right campaigning with Anthony Albanese in May 2022 shortly before winning the election)

Defending Stage Three tax cuts – which will award $9,075 to those earning $200,000 from July 1, 2024 – enraged Ms Brown even further after Dr Ananda-Rajah said she could see his distress.

His anger intensified after Dr Ananda-Rajah suggested the Parliamentary Budget Office had overestimated the cost of stage three tax cuts – last year, putting it at $243billion over a decade .

Dr Chalmers this month estimated the cost at $69 billion over four years.

Ms Brown launched another rant, before moving from the third stage of tax cuts to a budget surplus.

“It’s so crazy how you keep doing things on individuals,” she said.

“I’m not talking about myself. I’m talking about my generation.

Despite claiming to be an accountant, Ms Brown incorrectly suggested tax brackets had not been adjusted since 2008, when they were last adjusted in the 2020-21 financial year.

“It’s really interesting that you mention the parenthesis creep — I’m an accountant,” she said.

“The bracket drift impacts low and middle income people, it doesn’t impact the richest and wealthiest people.

“The last time we adjusted these tranches was before the 2008 global financial crisis.”

His claim was false, with the upper threshold of the 19% tax bracket rising to $45,000 from $37,000 in 2020-21, benefiting part-time workers earning less than minimum wage.

Middle-income earners also benefited, with the 32.5% threshold raised to $120,000 from $90,000 previously.

They were announced in Budget 2019 but accelerated by two fiscal years to 2020-21 during the October 2020 pandemic.

Dr Ananda-Rajah, whose parents fled Sri Lanka before the long civil war, was one of three federal Labor MPs who last month signed a petition with the Australian Council of Social Services calling for a big increase in unemployment benefits from JobSeeker.

The UK-born doctor won the easy seat of Higgins in the last election, although Labor won a primary vote of just 28.5% compared to 40.7% for her Liberal predecessor Katie Allen, a pediatrician.

Green preferences made her the first-ever Labor MP for Higgins, an electorate previously held by former Liberal prime ministers Harold Holt and John Gorton and longtime ex-treasurer Peter Costello – who last ran the budget surplus in 2007.