Sold! Who Broke the Australian Dream? Review
This week Binge unveils its very important documentary Sold! Who Broke the Australian Dream?
In just under three decades, Australia’s dream of owning your own home has morphed into a nightmare. The housing market is deep in crisis- between policies, Boomers seeking investment properties, building companies’ financially dying off and a rental market being stretched too far in over demand, the great “Australian dream” of owning your own home is slipping out of reach of first home buyers. Comedian Mark Humphries is one of the many struggling to buy a house- so if a C-grade celebrity can’t make it happen, how do normal people achieve it?
In the documentary’s 48 minutes, Humphries investigates the complexities of the crisis by exposing the reality facing all young Aussies- the pressures of exorbitant rent increases, dilapidated properties, endless queues for inspections, the reliance young Australians have on the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’ to boost their chances, competion from Boomers, foreign investors and immigrants, and whether the changes to the capital gains tax in 1999 led to the crisis.
The documentary explains and educates with an informative look at the crisis, utilising interviews from renters and investors as well as attempting to get answers from politians. Most notable are rental advocate-turned-Victorian Socialists Senate candidate Jordan van den Lamb, AKA @PurplePingers; former Labor leader Bill Shorten, briefly reflecting on his attempts to change housing tax policy; and ABC finance journalist Alan Kohler, explaining how those tax systems work.
Humphries is inspired with solutions, but quickly finds out that making changes isn’t as easy as it seems- and while progress is being made towards fixing the crisis, there’s a long way to go. But is it really reverseable? The final revelation just might surprise you.
Sold! Who Broke the Australian Dream is a fun look at a very serious topic.
3.5 stars
Sold! Who Broke the Australian Dream is now streaming on BINGE
