The Chaser Report - Who Can We Trusts?

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

Investor extraordinaire Peter Dutton has flipped some pretty sweet deals in his time, which leads Dom and Charles to the question: is this the election of Trusts? Plus Charles has the latest from "Labor's dirt unit".Read the Herald's article on Dutton:https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/26-properties-in-35-years-peter-dutton-s-extensive-property-portfolio-revealed-20250211-p5lb9g.htmlWatch OPTICS on ABC iview here:https://iview.abc.net.au/show/opticsCheck out more Chaser headlines here:https://www.instagram.com/chaserwar/?hl=enHow to make a loaded potato:https://chaser.com.au/support/ 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 Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. Now, Charles, the dream of all Australians, and we know this, better than anything, if there's one thing we know about this country, it is that the dream of all Australians is to own not one property, not two properties, but multiple properties. And the people who know this best of all, Charles, are our politicians.

and in the news today there have been lots of questions asked about Peter Dutton's financial arrangements which I must say brings back so many memories of the Malcolm Turnbull days but no the scrutiny is on Peter Dutton and his family trust

which has been used for all manner of property transactions over the year Yes so are we on the verge because I'm presuming Peter Dutton's going to be the next Prime Minister Strangely enough after the I should issue a clarification by the way on that Earlier this week, we had an episode talking about the polls,

which said that it was 55-45 coalition over Labor. Yes. The Morgan poll had a 51% margin for labour. Yes. So who knows. Well, and, you know, for people who depend on the Chaser report to get reliable information. Yes.

Are they really... If that's you, can you email a podcast at chaser.com. Because we'll have to really change our format if that's the case. So Peter Dutton, Virger being next pro-minister, will he be the most of the richest pro-minister... in Australian history. Well, is he richer than Malcolm Turnbull? In no way, is he rich than Malcolm Turnbull?

But I've heard figures that he's got like a 300 million or not. Oh, well, why don't you dig out those figures during these ads? Yeah. We can talk. So at one point, Charles, and I guess this is the key to all of this, is that if you're above a certain level of wealth and there's a trust, no one actually knows how much you're worth. And this is what the very wealthy do.

They start all these family trusts. which own all these assets so that they're not necessarily on your, listed as your personal assets, and they buy and sell things. And look, just before we get on to Malcolm Turnbull's net worth versus Peter Dutton's, the story today is about Peter Dutton's family trust, or at least one of his family trust, there are several. And the Herald reported today that Peter Dutton's family trust bought and sold, I think it's $30 million worth of property transactions,

26 pieces of real estate over 35 years. And so he basically, since buying his first time at 19, remember when that was a thing you could do, has just bought and sold many, many, many properties over the years. But it's not entirely clear exactly how much he's worth. There are theories about this. You've got to realise, like, Peter Dutton was a Queensland police officer. That is a lucrative position.

Is it? Yeah. Like people are sort of questioning, oh, why is he so wealthy and things like that? He was a cop. He was a Queensland cop in the 1990s. There's a lot of Queensland cops, Charles. Are you sure you want to allege what you seem to be alleging? I'm not alleging anything.

I'm just saying you get a wage each week. Oh, you're saying it's true honest work. You take money home each week. But you're talking about in the 90s. You could actually buy and sell properties. And in fact, one of the fascinating things about this story is just how cheap it is to buy and sell properties, like entire shopping centres in North Queensland. So that's part of the story.

But apparently, if this is to be, according to this report today, they've gotten out of a lot of these things. I sold a $6 million gold coast home in 2021, as you do. Yeah, as you do. He only now owns a 68 hectare farm in Queensland, which he bought in 2020 for 2 million, 2.1 million. The word only is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Yeah, that's right. But he did own, according to the Herald, I don't want you to run you through the things he apparently did own. Oh, why don't it does make me depressed?

Yeah, absolutely. So you owned, and this is the Herald, luxury Brisbane CBD apartment, bought for $2.7 million, sold for $3.4.7. Should we take a break? There's an entire shopping centre in Queensland. This is the fascinating thing. In Townsville, born in 2016 for $760,000,

and then sold in 2022 for $8.40. So you can buy a whole shopping mall for much less than a one-bedroom apartment in Sydney. A whole other one. Yeah, another big apartment in Spring. Spring Hill. I mean, it's just, this is just endless. Then there's the house on the Gold Coast, Charles at Palm Beach, bought in December 2014 for 2.3, sold in February 2021 for $6 million. That's a nice little more than doubling your money,

isn't it? Well, the good thing about the Australian taxation system is, if you structure it correctly, you don't get a huge amount of tax on that. Well, that's the whole joy of the trust, isn't it? Camp Mountain, Queensland, 2003 bought for $17,000, sold $1.8 million in 2020. This is great. This is the, this is why. This is why he's so popular. because he knows an opportunity. And there's other opportunities that the Labor Party has raised questions about in the recent week. One more. I just think of you one more.

In Yeronga, his first home, when he was 19 years old, bought for $93,000. How old was he? He was 19. Yeah, he must be 19. And when did he, like, what? Right. Remember when you could buy homes in Australia? I don't remember, but apparently you could for less than.

hundred grand you could actually buy it's quite a big house too are you depressed are you sufficiently depressed yet so this is just somebody who and this is what the herald asks is he a wealthy man who hides his wealth and defends negative gearing in capital gains tax out of self-interest asks the herald or is he the son of a bricklayer made good who pulled double shifts running child care standards and working as a queensland cop to become prosperous over years of work charles which is it that's what voters have to decide just the herald but he's certainly been busy buying and selling Which is good. Yeah.

Yeah. Which makes me wonder then, Charles, if he is prime minister, can he buy and sell properties on behalf of Australia? Can he use this Nouse for the property? Yes, that's right. Can we buy, I don't know, Nauru, cheap property to the north of Australia? I reckon that would probably be 93,000. No, 3,000. Actually, don't we buy it regularly?

I think we do. We've paid far more than we need to do to buy. Yeah, but we need to flip it. This is what he's done. He flips things, Charles. He flips it. We could flip now, we could flip it. No, we should flip Adelaide.

It's a perfect opportunity. By Adelae. Tasmania, that's come up a lot. Yes. More gentrification. Sell it to rich billionaires. Yeah, the ones who want to go and hide there. Who thought that New Zealand would be a good option?

I mean, what about Canberra? That's almost entirely owned by the federal government. That would be fairly flippable. Capital Hill would look a lot. I mean, you think of the flagpole on there now. Yes. Think of a big residential apartment block. You know what is going to come out in the next few days, though, from the Liberal Party to a unit?

is going to be Albo's financial transactions. Well, this is the interesting question. I bet you a billion dollars that what they show is that Albo has made a series of 18 disastrous financial transactions and lost millions of dollars over. I mean, this is the interesting thing. I don't know how it all shakes out. But, yeah, I mean, Albo has come under a lot of fire over the Central Coast, you know, retirement home or whatever it is that he's bought with his fiancé. But do you want someone who's better at buying and selling property or someone who's basically had to be Prime Minister and live free for a bit

in order to afford his three moat. I don't know if that's true either because all these politicians... Yeah, they all own... They all own investments. A lot of them buy properties in Canberra and, oh, they're in the wife's name to the allowance. All this stuff, we know about this. Yeah, except for Max Chandler-Matha, the goody-two-shoes of Australian Parliament. The one person who rents.

Yeah. The one renter in Parliament. The one renter in Parliament. and given how much property prices have increased over the last few years, Max is a fool. He's a fool! He's the only fool in Parliament. Would you put Max in charge of Treasury?

Oh, God, no. Yes. Whereas petered up me. He'd probably just go, oh, let's just rent Australia rather than buy it. He probably would. But look at the opportunity. I mean, those, we've been thinking, Charles, and maybe we've been missing the point here. We've been talking for so long about the submarines, the Orcas submarines,

and how Australia's paying all this money and will be. get nothing back for it. But what if we can flip the submarines? What if we can sell the submarines to New Zealand or, I don't know, another country in the Asia Pacific for a hefty markup? What if Peter Dut and can flip the submarines? Yes, we flip the submarines. Yes.

To China. Yeah, yeah. That's right. Interested in the latest American technology? Yeah, that would be. And that would be an amazing opportunity. Yes. So the flip a PM, he could be potentially. Yep.

But then there's all these questions about the trust. And this is the thing. You don't, you just have to trust a trust, Charles. You can't actually know what it's been doing. No, exactly. And, you know, so John Howard did an election once based on trust. Yes. Who do you trust?

He's the election based on trusts. It is. Who do you trusts? That's right. But, Dom, I feel like we're not getting to the heart of the allegations that the Labor Party have raised. Well, there's another one that was in the years today. Let's get into that after this little commercial break. The Chaser Report, now with extra whispers.

So the allegation, well, I don't think it's an allegation, I think it's an actual sort of, like, they've raised the actual point that Peter Dutton was a member of Parliament back in 2009. And he, as a sitting member in Parliament, you know, knew roughly what was going on during that period. And the day before, the banks received a massive bank. bailout, he bought shares in a whole lot of banks, of Australian banks, who then bailed out the next day. No, that's not quite right. It's actually even more bizarre than that.

Let me tell you the story from The Guardian here. Okay, so what happened was, we're talking about the 23rd of January 2009, right? Oh, yes. That was a nice sunny day, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah, three days before my birthday. Yeah, that's right. Peter Dutton bought shares in CBA, NAB, and Westpac. They all had record lows on that day.

they're all absolutely in the toilet. The next day, on the 24th of January, the Rudd government announced the Australian Business Investment Partnership, which was a $4 billion package to bail out, among others, the banks. Yes. However, the stimulus package was never introduced. Do you know why? It was opposed in Parliament,

and Peter Dutton was on the opposition benches at the time. However, it did move the markets when it was announced. Obviously, the shares in the banks went up. up significantly. And the question is, did Peter Dutton have any insider knowledge of this? And Labor is asking, Labor is marrying what is asking, whether he knew anything which Dutton has denied for what it's worked. Right. Okay. Essentially, what Peter Dutton was doing was he was watching all these banks go to record lows. Everyone's livelihoods were sort of being ruined at the time. And Peter Dutton turns around and goes, you know what I'm going to do during this crisis where

everyone's finances are turned up so done. I'm going to, I see this as an opportunity for wealth creation for myself. Did he? Or did he decide to single-handedly bail out the bank stuff? Maybe he was in there. Like he wants to try to stop the boats. He does save the banks. He does have the money of a Queensland cough.

To invest with. Maybe that's why the banks turned around. It was nothing to do with Rudd's rescue package. It was because people got wind. There was a Queensland cop. helping you save the day. He's like the Saudis swooping in. But this is again, look, this has been accused of being mud

and they're saying, do you want to say that outside of parliamentary privilege? Katie Gallagher has said... Oh, by the way, just to be clear, we are saying this under parliamentary privilege. No, we're allowed to report things that were said under parliamentary privilege. Oh, thank God, I'm pretty sure. No, I was going to say, we're actually sitting in Parliament right at the moment. I should say this, yeah, yeah, sure. So Katie Gallagher said, and I'm quoting, because it's important with parliamentary privilege.

For example, if a public servant was to know, hypothetically, the banks were to be bailed up during the GFC and sought to buy up shares in all those major banks on the eve of that announcement, I imagine there would be serious consequences. And then Jane Hume, the shadow finance minister said, want to say that outside of parliamentary privilege minister? Oh, damn. And then James McGrath said, all you've got is mud. Go on Sky News.

Go on the ABC even. Say it there. Yeah, well, Peter Dutton does have a history. of launching defamation cases and losing them. So, you know... That is true. So, but I guess, again, is Peter Dutton simply a savvy investor who would turn Australia?

I mean, look, there might be another financial crisis if he were Prime Minister. We've got the Future Fund. What if the Future Fund bought shares happily moments before the Stock Exchange went up? You know what I'm thinking? I'm thinking Peter Dutton should help bank roll the Future Fund. Is he what I mean? If he's such a canny investor Yeah, and in actual fact

Our future fund Should bankroll Peter Dutton? You see what I mean? Like he's such a good investor Perhaps what we should do, Charles, Is it the best job of Peter Dutton Someone should put this to him Is not to be Prime Minister

Oh, I like that But is to run the future fund And run all of our super Because this man has had An extraordinary record of investing I mean all these transactions All the properties I mentioned made money Yes

The share transaction made money I don't know if you've ever tried investing in anything at all, but I can tell you it's possible to lose money when you invest. It's actually quite easy in my experience. Yeah, okay. So what we do is we just have. So it's sort of a bit Trump style, isn't it? Like it's sort of like, let's privatise the entire federal government.

Investor in chief. Investor in chief. Do we just get rid of the role of prime minister completely? Like, do we need things? I think it's less important than the person who invests all. So who should become, because I sort of, I feel like we need to sort of incorporate, like give Albo a role here, you know, like, I feel like it's a bit, you know, just sort of letting pet it up and do everything seems to be unfair.

Well, what Albo could do, what Albo's job? He could go to his house on the Central Coast and just look out for boats. He could be the one stopping the boats with a pair of binoculars. Well, that would be ironic, wouldn't it? It would be. Yeah. Look, so the questions keep being asked about this, but, I mean, it just. Obviously, I'm a bit disappointed about the parliamentary privilege thing because I feel like I was going to really enjoy the attack ads that Labor was going to run.

But if they can't say them outside of parliament, they can't run them as ads, like don't you think that was going to be a fun ad? Peter Dutton invested money in your misery, you know, just as the GFC was happening. Do you voice those ads, Charles? Is it your deep voice that does all that? No comment. Who was that guy who did it? Just let me remind you that Domnoyt has a suss. Do you remember that guy?

I think it was Brian Lofton for the coalition, the guy that did that. No, no, Brian Lovenin was the party secretary. But there was someone who voiced those. Authorized by Brian Lovelin. Yeah. It's spoken by a very deep voice man. And I guess the point here is that if there is any dirt, if the dirt units were scooped up anything in the past few years, it's time.

It's on. This thing is on, Charles. Yes. Is that the best shot Labor has managed to come up with Peter Doe? that he's been quite a fortunate investor over the years. Rodney's going to go, I don't want this guy. He's quite good at investing. Or is this going to make him a cult figure?

Is he the new barefoot investor? I don't know, but don't you think, I don't know, anyone who's good with money, I just always find a bit suss. Maybe there's just my upbringing, but don't you mean it's just a bit suss when someone's good at investing. Well, I don't know whether to be jealous or resentful. No, no, jealous and resentful. Yeah, yeah.

That's why I hated Malcolm Turnbull so much. It's just a bit suss. Like, I don't know, like, just be normal. Don't, I don't want a leader who's, like, good to invest in. I mean, I do think people who are really brilliant and have this incisive mind and ability to spot opportunities that other people don't do. I think they should go into podcasting. That's where we need the best of the brightest.

That's where we've, how many hours have we spent doing this podcast when we could have been, I don't know. Flipping. We should flip this podcast. Yes. Absolutely. If anyone wants to buy it. Yeah. Look, if Peter Dutton wants.

wants to buy it for a family trust or something. Well, he'll be buying it at a bargain basement price, I'm going to show you. But Charles, maybe, look, if Peter Dutton does get in touch, that could mean. We need a podcast bailout. That could mean that the following day, the podcast's about to do really well. I love it. Stay tuned. We're part of the O'Connorclass Network.

Catch you tomorrow. And this podcast is officially for sale.