Bill Shorten was the unlikely hero of Waleed Aly's latest declamation lambasting the government's negative gearing policy, casting the opposition leader as the annoying neighbour we should all listen to.
Aly was in no mood to celebrate the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's unwavering support of the negative gearing status quo, having previously stated he rents his family home because he and his wife can't afford to buy in Richmond.
"Economists agree, negative gearing pushes house prices up, contributes to making our houses some of the most expensive in the world, and if you're from generation X, Y, or a millennial, it's one of the reasons you've been locked out of the market," he said on The Project on Wednesday night.
Labor's plan to rein in negative gearing and increase capital gains tax was "good news", Aly said, adding they would make houses less of an "investment for the rich, and more of a, you know, a home".
Aly mocked Turnbull's decision to parade the Mignacca family before the media.
The Mignacca family, the PM explained, were using negative gearing to buy a home for their one-year-old girl.
"So to recap: negative gearing has contributed to you generations X, Y, and millennials not being able to buy a home… but it's got this baby one… so it all evens out, yeah?" Aly said.
He challenged the outcry from proponents of negative gearing that people from a spectrum of socio economic backgrounds use tax avoidance measures, brandishing a list of the top 10 electorates that claim the highest average losses through negative gearing.
"Up the top there is Wentworth. The Prime Minister's own electorate," Aly said.
He leapt on Turnbull's touting the BIS Shrapnel report, deemed "manifestly ridiculous", which the Prime Minister said was proof that Labor's plan would take a sledgehammer to property prices.
If Turnbull wouldn't supply modelling The Project would, pointing to the Australian National University's Centre for Social Research and Methods modelling that showed Labor's policy would slow the growth of house prices, increase new construction and raise billions for the budget each year.
The independent report found: Labor's policy could be "the biggest housing affordability policy the country has seen" .
Dropping some hard truths on The Project's young (and single) audience members, Aly said: "Right now, when you want to buy your first home, the cost of the average house is roughly 4.3 times household income.
"Which is amazing considering so many more houses have two incomes now. So good luck if you're single," he said.
In defiance of Turnbull's "common sense" claim during his 7.30 appearance on Tuesday night, Aly awarded that modest accolade to the opposition leader.
"[Shorten is] saying things have got out of control, and he's selling us common sense. Moderation. Tax reform. All really boring things, which is a problem," Aly said.
He compared Shorten to an annoying neighbour complaining over the back fence, and a used car salesman that would drive a would-be-buyer to boat ownership, suggesting the opposition leader's policy suffered from lacklustre sellability.
"Bill's saying shut the party down, and we all know, no real Aussie likes a party pooper.
"That's until you realise that unless you're a baby boomer, or apparently an actual baby, you're not invited to this party.
"It's time we shut the party down," he said.
Aly's regular segment 'Something We Should Talk About' is co-written by Aly and The Project's Supervising Producer Tom Whitty.
