The Chaser Report - Albo's Tenant Invites Us To His Eviction Party | Jim Flanagan

Episode Date: May 27, 2024

Dom and Charles sit for a chat with Anthony Albanese's soon-to-be evicted tenant, Jim Flanagan. Jim shares how his life became a media-circus after The Daily Telegraph butchered his story, how the Prime Minister and media spread misinformation without fact checking, and of course, an invite to his upcoming eviction party. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gadigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Jacea Report with Dom and Charles. And Charles, today we have an extremely eminent guest, a man who's been all over the media. The number of stories I've read about this next person, I'm just so excited to meet. Jim Flanagan, aka Albo's Tenant. Jim, welcome aboard. Kaday, good morning.

It's been a bit of a saga, this hasn't it? talk us through how the whole thing unfolded. And I'm kind of get a sense of what the place is like as well, because I'm a Sydney Sider, so I love properties. Sticky Beaking, but let's just recap how this whole thing unfolded, because you're a big media star these days. It's only moments before you get your own show on Sky News, I'm imagining. That is not what I'd anticipate anyone saying a couple of weeks ago, and that is for sure. And look, just to be clear, the media attention and attention of any luck is my idea of hell on Earth. But, hey, that is entirely on me, I decided to take this story to the media and I take full responsibility for that. And look,

the first thing I'd say up front is that, look, it is a complicated issue. I think it's worth a chat, which is why I did choose to go public. And that's entirely on me. And I think it's very valid criticism that I allowed an interview to take place with a Daily Telegraph, perhaps a publication not well known for its interest in nuance and complexity. So that is entirely on me. And I don't, I don't begrudged than that. They have their own agenda. They have their own audience. It was always going to your story that was simplified. That's so diplomatic. That's so impressive. I think you need a job as one of Albo's spin doctors, frankly. That's beautifully put. So I'm glad you've come to this reputable news source, the Chaser Report, to set your story straight. Let's get into it a bit further

after this. Okay, so you went to the telly. I've had that experience. I've been interviewed by the telly where they talk to you for 45 minutes and then take one sentence. where they asked you to comment on something controversial, and that's the headline, and they ignore the entire point you're trying to make. We've all been there. And unsurprisingly, that's exactly what they did, right? There was no, and I'm not, again, even criticising them for this. There was no begging in the interview that I conducted with a telegraph.

There was no direct line of intended communication to Albo in the interview that I conducted. It was factual, and I would suggest it's going to be very much aligned to what I say to you today. But, yeah, that turned out into a tenant begs elbow to not kick him out, et cetera, et cetera. And that's fine. That was not unanticipated. But again, a complicated issue was then turned into a straightforward headline. Jim, when you went to get your story out there, what were you hoping to achieve? Okay.

So, look, what I was hoping to achieve was a conversation around what is happening in the rental market currently, the challenges that are faced by renters. very, very specifically, because of the lack of protections in the Australian legislative framework in the renting market, the extreme challenges faced by renters right now when they are moved on for whatever reason, right? Renting generally is challenging in Australia. The protections are among some of the weakest in the developed world. Tenancy legislation, I would suggest, is unambiguously weighted in favour of landlords. And that produces, and this has all been said a million times prior to the current crisis that we're going to. That produces a fundamental lack of security for renters. Now, that scenario is massively exacerbated when there is a crisis and a demand crisis

in the rental market and prices skyrocket. That's not even taking the cost of living crisis that we're also now facing into consideration. So I think in those scenarios, that imbalance in the legislative framework and lack of protections, is really, really exacerbated, and it's very challenging for renters when they're moved on. So in Germany, if a property is sold, it is sold with the tenants still in place. It's literally illegal for a tenant to be removed when a property is sold. Now, the reason that I specifically wanted a discussion around this issue is that is the exact scenario at play here. Albo has been up front about the fact that, quote, these circumstances have

changed and is wanting to sell the property. Now, you can argue, I think convincingly, and I can be criticised for this, is, so when the prime minister is faced with a decision there, as is any property holder, if they are selling a property in the current environment in the Australian housing market, with a tenant, they can choose to evict the tenant and potentially increase their sales price. It's not a given. It's, it's, it's probably likely, right? You've got to kind of spruce the place up, get it on the market, you then advertise it vacant. Or you can make a choice and a consideration to not evict that tenant, not throw out someone onto the housing market and seek to sell that house and perhaps not get as much money as you want to.

Albo is absolutely entirely, as is any property owner, entitled because there is no protections around this exact scenario for tenants to evict a tenant and sell that. that property. Albo clearly chose not to do that, and that's fine that is legal. There is no issue with that whatsoever. But is it kind, I guess, is the question. But just because it's legal doesn't mean it's right. I guess he's entitled to. 100%. And that's that's exactly, that's exactly the issue. So again, is there a discussion worth having around the fact that the Prime Minister of Australia, whose political party to Labor Party and Albo have been talking a pretty hard game recently about understanding what a challenging time this is for a lot of Australians that are struggling,

understanding the pressures in the housing market. And just to be clear, there are pressures in the housing market for homeowners as well. Absolutely, the interest rate apocalypse is awful. I'm not saying it's only bad for the third of Australians that rent. But that is... I'm guessing, though, it's not, times aren't bad for Alba. Like, he used his own personal life as his justification for... selling this property ride, which means it's totally justified for us to look into his personal

life and his own personal circumstances around the moral and ethical decision that he made to chuck out somebody onto the housing market. And I think we can make a very clear case that what he did was wrong. It was just wrong. It was the wrong thing to do, it was wrong thing to do politically. But it's, I mean, if anything, he should have used it as an opportunity to go, it is outrageous that if I'm making a profit out of creating a home for somebody that somehow I'm suddenly entitled to be able to decide because my circumstances have changed what happens to that person's home if you're making money out of and but somebody else seems being very diplomatic you know what I mean like it is outrageous but I think a lot of people share Charles's

feelings about these I'm I would not I would not put it in as strongest words as that but I at least think that that exact point and the decision that Albo has made here is at least worth a discussion and a conversation in terms of what it highlights around, A, the lack of protections for rental renters in this exact scenario. And perhaps that property owners have a decision to make in this scenario. And I think that is, I think that's worthy of a discussion. I think it's in the public interest. But I actually think, I think you're wrong. I think actually the point is that we have a situation in Australia where it is, there is a belief that property investment and property of investment alone should be a completely

riskless investment that every other investment you take on with certain risks, knowing certain risks. So if you buy shares in a company, you know that something might happen in the future that means that you can't get the money out of the company as quickly as you thought you would or, you know, like that you're taking on a risk in making money out of that thing. Whereas in Australia, there's this absolute belief amongst both sides of the political class that actually, no, no, if you are making money out of an investment property, you also then get the opportunity to, you know, evict that, like have total say over what you've done with that investment property, which no other investment class does.

Not to mention the negative gearing tax protections and so on, which, you know, Bill Shorten tried to mess with and lost an election. I guess the other thing to note here, Jim, is the extent to which part of Anthony Ebeney's personal brand is growing up in social housing. Now, I'm not across what the, I think the council loaned his home when he was growing up, but I'm pretty sure they didn't sort of just arbitrarily sell it

because their personal circumstances change. And the point being, if we look at the broader policy side of this, given that he's, you know, the prime minister, we have a model where a vast quantity of housing is provided by private investors, not by the state. And that's a very different model. They're now saying, the government's now saying, we want this build-to-rent housing.

We want companies like Merriton to go in and build these units because people will have more security. People like you are much less likely to be evicted arbitrarily, but then, of course, all these private companies are going to make vast profits out of this model. But other countries do it differently. In Singapore, housing is seen as more of a right. The government builds vast quantities of homes

and has a model for selling them to the people who live in them. that's not the path that Australia is taken. And so when I heard the story, it made these issues come to the fore for me. I mean, I don't really have such a strong feeling about Anthony Allen and his personal circumstances or whatever, but he certainly should answer questions about this from a policy perspective because you are a case study, and I presume that's why you came forward. Yeah, I think that's right. And I personally, I don't have any issues with a lot of housing being provided by private

homeowners as long as I would suggest there is an appropriate regulatory framework in place that provides at least basic protections and I'm certainly not a person that is always look I'm a you know I believe in a mixed economy I'm not a I'm a center leftist I'm not screaming for superfluous red tape when it's not needed but some some basic protections perhaps around scenarios exactly like this and this is certainly something that I said in my media engagements last Thursday, I think, would partly address that issue. It doesn't, you know, the Singapore model is a really good model and the Singapore model is really, really complicated. Yeah, it's more nuanced that I've mentioned, but they're not exactly screaming lefties in

Singapore. No, they're certainly are not. But again, I don't see any issue with, you know, a mixed economy and a mixed approach to this where a lot of this housing is provided by private owners, but I do think we need to, especially in a crisis and extremely, in a crisis and extreme circumstances where there's such a demand issue like this, potentially look at the regulatory requirements in scenarios exactly like this. And just back to the earlier points. So, you know, property owners have a decision to make in this scenario, right? They have a decision to make around, do they choose to, it's quite a straightforward decision. Do you potentially choose to only potentially increase your sales price and evict someone, put them

back onto the rental market, or perhaps attract only potentially a slightly smaller sale price and look to sell your property with a tenant on board. Yeah, and as you say, other jurisdictions have very different policies on this. But I was going to say, I think the problem that you're sort of skirting around, though, is that when you become a property investor, you get landlord brain. What shocked me when your thing all blew up a week or two ago is everyone I talked to who, you know, has an investment property or something like that, just went, what are you talking about? Like, of course you get to do whatever you like with that property. Like, of course, you know, like they own it.

Like, he owns it. It's a nothing burger. This whole story is a nothing burger. You get to do whatever you like. And that's all true. Landlord brain. That landlord, I know, but that's landlord brain thinking. And therefore, it can't be.

It's not like saying, oh, well, there's an ethical choice and therefore it works. You're talking about somebody who's got a genuine incapacity to think through the issues clearly because they've contracted this terrible brain disease that makes them feel like they should have this riskless investment where they're a lord that should be thanked. I would 100,000% agree with that. And there are several issues that I think need to be pointed out around that exact point. And again, I said this in all my media engagements last week, there's no class envy from me to property owners in this scenario.

And I have absolutely nothing against property owners. This isn't a rant, but Australian renters are a smaller percentage than in a lot of other parts of the world. Right? It's 33%. It's actually slightly less than that. Because of that, landlord brain is really, really prevalent, especially in the media landscape.

I mean, I have the all, can I swear on this program? Can I have the almighty shit kicked out. out of me on Twitter and threads. And they are, you know, these are largely urban elite property owners. These are largely my friends, right, not that they were necessarily kicking the shit out of me. But if you look at the, and if you look at the areas of Australian society that jumped on the pylon once that really got going, I would suggest there aren't many renters there. And there is generally general hostility in the press and the public towards renters, right? And and reading all of the accounts of this later in the day when the tide sort of turned,

and I'll get back to there in the second. And this is, I think this is, this is something that runs through Australian society generally in terms of renters and property ownership. There's almost this, I would suggest, this unconscious suggestion that, well, you know, if renters just kind of worked a bit harder, they could become property owners and proper Australians like us, and then they can shut up and stop having a whinge. And then any renter that has any issue with anything, regardless of its legitimacy, becomes that thing that Australians hate the most, which is a winger and a moaner. Well, we don't have a problem with that on this podcast, Jim.

I can tell you that wingerers are very welcome. But, I mean, we're at a point now in this cycle where Ben Fordham, I saw on Twitter this morning, published an op-ed piece from his show. I haven't listened to it yet. But it was basically saying young people are screwed. They can't own a house. They're doomed. What the hell do we do about this? This is Ben Fordham on 2G.

been. It's a story every day. It's a two story in the left or right about the housing crisis. Yeah, I also have to acknowledge I've done this. I've been a landlord who's sold a property and had to kick out the tenant because the new owner wanted to kick out the tenant. But this is to do with your overall point here, which I think is a really valid one, which is that this is the system. The government is supposed to be the honest broker between these different interests. Of course landlords should do what's in their financial interest. That's what they do. That's what, you know, since the feudal system, people who own property have done. And the serfs who rent, and I'm a serf who rents myself, these days, I don't

know any property anymore, it's a long story. But yes, there's supposed to be a fair deal done between two people with competing interests. That's the whole point of a government. And what you're saying is that because there's so many property owners in Australia, things are skewed. I think that's a very good point. I am keen to get onto the media side of the story, what happened after you stuck your head above the parapet. Let's jump on to that in a second, unless Charles has any more ranting to do, because I have been enjoying it.

No, no, no. I want to shit on Murdoch as well. All right, let's do that in a second. The Chaser Report, news a few days after it happens. So Thursday started super early for me. I had two film crews here pre-5 a.m. And like this was not how I anticipated this was going to run, right? even when the telegraph told me that they were going to publish it.

And again, that is all on me. This is not a winger, a moment. This is not unexpected and shit can move quickly in the media landscape. I gave them the story. They interviewed me really briefly. All of a sudden, an hour later, they were confirming with me that they were going to run it on the front page. This is Wednesday evening.

An hour later, it's published. It's on the front page of the telegraph and my phone explodes. And I were, and which is, again, not my idea of a good time at all. I was taking advice by some very trusted people in my life who were experienced media managers and spin doctors about how to manage this. And the advice that I received was that you need to get on the front foot and talk as much as you can and get your narrative out throughout the day. So initially at least say yes to everything, prioritize the big ones. You need to make sure that your story is out there because Albo is going to be hitting back really, really hard and you need to be prepared for that. So I said yes to everything.

My idea of hell on earth, I had literally 25 minutes sleep on Wednesday. night for obvious reasons and then I got going at and then I got going at 5am and look the day it's it's it started really well the line of questioning was straightforward I was pretty tired but I felt like I coherently laid out in a simplified version my main what I've been saying it to you guys and then there were some very I think useful lines of questioning that begun to be asked to the prime minister especially by Patricia on um the ABC yes I heard that you let's let's just play a clip of that right now. We'll just get to the point where you can actually hear Albo having landlord Brian. Well, not everyone who's an owner of a property has a situation whereby the

people living in there are paying half the market rent. That's true. Why he's responded in this way is really... Then Albo in an interview on the ABC used two main talking points to dismiss and criticize my story. And they were first and foremost that I was basically, and I'm grateful tenant because I was, quote, being charged half the market rate. The second point was that, Alba wasn't in the position to look at other options because I had, and I'm paraphrasing here, I've got the specific wording, the exact wording in front of me. I had not been cooperating in discussions with the estate agent. Now, both of those statements, if they're fact-checked, even briefly,

are completely 100% not true. I have got the transcript. The PM said he's refused to have discussions with the real estate agent. That's the matter for him. I wish him well. Now, I wish him well is the ultimate kiss of death from Albo. When Albo says that to anyone, you know you are no longer on the Christmas card list. So they were the two points that Albo used.

to dismiss what I was saying. And I'm very happy, again, to go over exactly why they are, in no way, correct or accurate. You just had an inspection from memory. Yeah. So look, if you, do you want me to run over them briefly? I won't spend a whole lot of times. No, we want to get into the rest of the media coverage. But there's ample evidence that you have talked to the agent.

The one thing that really surprised me was the extent to which, and this absolutely includes media watch last Monday, the extent to which not even the most fundamental and basic of fact-checking of those two statements was conducted by anyone after they were said by Albo. And it's almost like if the Prime Minister and Peter Van Olson and the Daily Mail say something, it's true. Charles, are we sure this is actually Albo's tenant and not a, did we check that this is the right person?

This would be a great prank. No, fair enough, though, because fact-checking is boring. I don't want to affect you. It's slow. It takes time. We don't have time for this. We'll just take you at your words. It's fine.

Let's move on. Yes, and I had, I'd had an inspection literally the week before. And just to be clear, let's take a glass, three-quarters empty approach, just with a second approach about apparently me not cooperating with a real estate agent. I'm not in the position to negotiate here. This is the whole point of this scenario. There's no discussion to be had. I am literally at the whim of the landlord.

I have no bargaining chips here. There's no discussion. Albo can at any time serve me with a minimum 90 days notice, which is what he did, or he can choose to do something else. I literally am not in the position to negotiate, but just to be clear, I did, and I had numerous and ongoing interactions with a real estate agent, including lighting up an inspection five days before the story broke, and just to be really, really clear, and this is the only thing I can possibly think Alba was referring to after he clearly had discussions with a real estate

agent overnight and early in the morning. The only time I would cut off any kind of communications with a real estate agent over the last few years was when he conversationally would suggest that the rent needed to be put back up. And whenever that was the case, I would say, hello, thank you very much. I need that in writing just to make sure it's aligned with a real estate agent because I suspected it was not. And I'd heard multiple accounts from other people that I know that were renting of estate agents looking to potentially increase the property of the value of properties, skim off the top,

and not pass that on to the property owner. Right. Whatever I did that, it would disappear. And I'd never hear from him, but I wouldn't hear from him for six months. It's just floating a trial balloon. Oh,

what about an idea? What about more rent? What do you think of that? Fantastic. So whenever I asked that to be provided in writing, I'd never hear anything. Yeah, no, it does have to provide it in writing.

I can tell you from my own circumstance. Correct. All right. So this happens. Your phone goes crazy. Everyone who knows you comes into the media. Paul Murray is talking about it. Every show.

Everyone from, yeah, from media watch to Paul Murray, the full spectrum of the Australian media is having a crack at this. Yeah. And you were saying there was quite a lot of misinformation that emerged going up. I mean, everyone's got an agenda in this scenario. How did it unfold from there? I mean, I saw even your ex got quoted quite extensively. That was very strange.

And said that if she saw Albo in the street, he'd kiss her. And I just really hope that Albo's fiancé knows about this. And just to be clear, and that was really unfortunate, and I was doing my utmost to keep everyone. else out of that. I have no idea what those stories have to do with anything at all involving this. And that quote was literally from about four or five years ago. I have utterly no idea what it had to do with anything involved in the story other than a well-known, this is all on the public record. There was a well-known incident, right? And this is the thing. This is all in my

initial interview to The Daily Telegraph. I was explicit, 100% transparent on what I was paying currently for the property that Albow had reduced the rent during COVID that he hadn't put it back up that I that we'd sort of confirmed earlier that we were being overcharged and which is why I was comfortable with the data here right so it's pretty it's pretty clear if you look at the history of the property in the rental market we were overcharged for quite a few years but we were keen to be closer to our place of work so we were okay with that and then Albo reduces the rent during COVID which which was great and and hugely appreciative and I've never suggested was anything other than a good, a decent landlord. And yes, he hasn't put it back up. And yes,

I am on below market rent currently. It's not even close to half. It's just a preposterous suggestion that you can dismiss by five minutes of Googling on domain. And as a couple of people, there were a couple of stories that ran the figures during the day. You can do it in about 15 minutes that basically confirmed that if you look at what the property was charged for the first few years and its market rate. It was clearly over over what it needed to be. If you then net that out with a reduction that Albo's supplied over the last few years, it just about evens itself out.

I saw the reporting on that, yeah. Yeah. And can I just say, even, and I think this is a really important point, even if he hadn't been overcharging us beforehand, right? Even if Albo, even if I have been paying below market rent for a few years, that's a super common practice in the rental market where a landlord will look after an extremely long this is I'm just very surprised that this this was given a running as well it's a really common practice right when the landlord will grant after a period of many many years

won't put the rent back up or will give a tenant and provide a tenant below market rent because they're a good tenant because that's that is very common yeah yeah it's part of a constructive social contract right it's um as common as something that's very common that I can't think of right now yeah beat ups in the media I'm in a slice spread that's that both both of those things fairly, fairly common. The one thing that really surprised me on the day was the extent to which those two talking points that Albo used to dismiss my story and I guess to discredit me were immediately taken up and not fact-checked in any meaningful way with one or two small exceptions, again, including Media Watch on Monday. That was, that was, and I'm fine to be

criticized for being naive that that surprised me, but it's still surprising. I think we once had a sketch, didn't we, Charles, about needing a media watch watch to really just take apart what Media Watch do. So, yeah, it sounds like it was a pretty dispiriting experience with the media. Did things then get worse from there, Jim or was this the full extent of it? What happened there? Let's really get to this, because I want to find out, I've got a big question for you at the end of this. Oh, I'm excited. And I've got a potential solution for you as well.

Amazing. So let's find out what happened. There was a change in tone following two things. elbows talking points and those two attack points on me and then from what i could tell primarily the daily mail headline that suggested that the australian public quote had turned on me and again it was like apparently which which again you know i was i was getting trolled really badly within an hour of um wednesday night and that continued throughout out the day and um it was always very divided in terms of the response, but again, it's almost like if the PM and the Daily Mail says something,

it must be true. And there was a change of tone then. And I was still being defended by sections of the media and the community, but the criticism became much more hysterical, much more aggressive, often literally more violent in the language of the trolling. And then the next day, this is a new one for me, I had repeated knocks on my front door and I had both news.com and the Daily Mail parked there for a while. I had a lot of really urgent stuff to do in my very small new business that I run. I gained them about three hours to bugger off. That didn't happen.

I'm just astonished at this. The idea that they're actually journalists who go out to a place, the media has budget for that these times. I'm shocked. I'm shocked to you this. And again, they can do what they want, right? The Daily Mail actually has reporters. Yeah, and they happen after three hours.

What happened? So I gave them another hour. I couldn't see anyone out of the window. I needed to go and buy bread and stuff for my small business, my small hospitality business that needed to open that night. And so I got dressed and went up to the IGA. And when I came back, there was a Daily Mail reporter on my front lawn with a microphone in my face and I didn't talk to her.

And then about an hour and a half later, there was another. extremely hostile article in the Daily Telegraph about me swanning around my villa with some stupid, super-dover creepy shots of me just walking up the street to the IGA. So there was a covert daily male photographer. He must have been parked there for like four or five hours at least looking at the timing of when they were first door knocking. And like he caught me like halfway out the street. So he had been there for a long, long time. Wow. So that's a little bit like Have you seen Baby Rained here? Yes.

So you've got your own wrapper. It was a real thing. And again, I'm not complaining. I'm not whinging. I'm not moaning. It is what it is. It was creepy, though. I mean, it just goes,

it's just a shame you don't have a personality disorder, like most of the people who feature in the media. You would have loved that. You would have loved the cameras being out. Can you imagine? Not really, no, because that's absolutely my idea of hell on this. I'm also just fascinated to hear that the Daily Mail

have a reporter who wasn't just there to copy and paste what the news. com. the day you reporter. So this is a revelation to me. They're resourcing as well that they can even afford to like send out someone just to like hang out and buddy dully chill for five hours. Did anyone break into your voicemail? No.

I did have. Oh, no, I did have a bunch of messages because my phone numbers on my business and I'm easily accessible. I didn't change that. I need it to run my business. Yeah, no, I did have all outlets really, email, Facebook, a lot of on Instagram. And a handful on my messenger as well.

Grinder as well. Not yet. There you go. I hope it's bringing to so look, the thing I'm keen to find out is have you found another place to live yet? And if not,

we can put the, I'm sure we've got boomers who listen to this podcast. Charles, can we put out the call to get Jim another regular property at a decent price? So again,

not, you know, not not, not sending out, you know, wishes or anything, but I have not. No,

and I started looking hard. All right. Again, back to my only point, it's, it's a fuck show out there. And it's expensive. You're going to be much more expensive.

Well, podcast at chaser.com.com. You've got a property in Sydney's inner west, and Jim seems like a very nice person. Apparently he looked after the property very well, except for that one time where he refused to speak to the agent. Good luck evicting him, though. That's true. Absolutely brutal.

But I've thought of a solution, which is all you need is someone to buy Albo's house who wants to have a tenant and is willing to have a cheap price. So if you're willing to continue being annoying to Albo, there's a man by the name of Peter Dutton, who's got a lot of investment properties. I think you'd find him a very helpful owner. You might even get rent-free.

Or Channel 7. Can you imagine the political wins for Dutton if he pulled the move off like that? That would be amazing. You know what, mate, I'm going to leave you there. I'm going to take a hundred into that thing. I've got a decision to make here. I'm not going to make you homeless. Any week you get out in the media and criticize Albao you get rent-free.

But then what about Channel 6? seven. If you had an interview with Sunday night, you can get a year. Do you have a spare room, Jim? I do. Yeah. Yeah, okay. So I've got this, what you do is you get Bruce Lerman to move in because he's just been evicted, right? And then Kerry Stokes will cover the, well, we'll buy the house.

Yeah, no, that's right. Yeah, to cover the rent for Bruce. Well, I'm going to have to have a thing before I head. Are you into karaoke? Look, I don't hate it. I run a small music. I think it's adjacent. Are you into hospitality, quote unquote?

Look, again, it's my industry. You run a small music venue and you can afford to pay rent on anything. It's definitely better than the venue we ran for a while back there. I guess the other question is, this is the thing, the main reason I wanted to speak to you today, as well as giving you the chance to hear your story before we selectively edit it to make you look like a monster. This will be about two minutes by the time we publish it.

I can't wait. Are you having a moving out part of? and can we come? Yes and yes, 100%. It would be there. Fantastic. It would be wild. I mean, bring your spray cans.

I'm not saying we trash the place. I'm just saying it'd be interesting to see. And look, after four and a half years, I mean, define wear and tear to me. You know, it's a vague phrase that surely can be spun in many different. Charles, did you just hear Albuyan threatening to trash the place? That's what I heard. Daily Mail, where are you? get on it. Jim, it's quite a story. I guess when you moved in, did you know it was Albo's

property when you moved in? Yeah, we did. Did you think there was any chance that there'd be anything like this happened? No. And again, like I've said to everyone that I've talked to, he was a very good, I mean, we never had any direct interactions with him, obviously, right? It was all through the agent, but he was, he's been a good tenant. I've never had any issues until another, you know, we did know when we moved in. It was written, in somewhere in the documentation we saw the name and thought, oh, hello. Yes, indeed. That's not a boring detail. And again, you know, as I said earlier, just quickly, there was a well-documented media event when all the public record, this got national news itself when my ex-partner who used to

live with me first brought attention to the fact that Alba was being a good landlord and reduced the rent during COVID and hadn't initially put it back up. It's all on the public record. There shouldn't have been any surprises in this story. And yet. I guess the other thing is, if we're looking for a positive note to end this on, you may have had what you feel is tough treatment from one prime minister. But if Scott Morrison was here, he'd want to tell you that this is God's plan for your good to be out on the street.

And you just need to look for the soaring eagle in this situation. Yeah. Soaring eagle populations are finite in Dalitiel, but I'll keep a closer eye out now. And I'll let Skomo know, that's for sure. I'm sure he'd be happy to sign a copy of his book for you, if you'd like. As long as I pay the RIP, yep, indeed. Thanks for being with us. Thanks, folks.

Good talking to you. Our gear is from road. We are part of the iconoclese, Nickle. And help Jim find a place, please. Catch you tomorrow.