Real Estate Institute of Australia CEO Amanda Lynch... lobbying against the removal of negative gearing. Photo by SilasFROM a cadet journalist to the CEO of one of the biggest organisations in the country – Amanda Lynch has lead an impressive career.
Ms Lynch was appointed CEO of Real Estate Institute of Australia in April and has hit the ground running.
“Some of my friends say, ‘from journalist to CEO’, but what they don’t realise is that a lot of the job is about communication,” she said.
Already, Ms Lynch and her president have “rubbed shoulders” with ministers and shadow ministers at Parliament House, lobbying hard for the real estate industry.
The hot issues for REIA include impacts of the carbon tax, first-home buyers, supply constraints, banking competition and taxation.
“There are lots of relevant issues at the moment, one was the idea of negative gearing,” she said.
“The Government, we believe, were considering removing [negative gearing], we’ve been very heavily lobbying the Government and working with other industry groups HIA and Master Builders Australia… two groups whose interests don’t always coincide with ours but we are building partnerships and collaborating.”
She said the October tax forum is also high on her agenda.
“Taxation is a big issue for us on the supply side, we believe that land-release policies and too many State taxes are actually holding the supply of housing back,” she said.
“We believe it is making it more difficult for people to afford houses.
“If I can achieve anything in REIA, it would be to encourage people to get into the housing market and build their long-term security.”
Ms Lynch began her career in journalism at “The Canberra Times”, before moving on to 666 ABC, “Sunday Sun” (Brisbane), “The Advertiser” (Adelaide) and magazine publisher Emap in London.
She’s held parliamentary positions as senior adviser, chief of staff and media adviser including senior political adviser to Peter Dutton, chief of staff to Gary Hardgrave and assistant media adviser to former Howard Government ministers Alexander Downer and Amanda Vanstone.
Ms Lynch was also the director of Government relations/public affairs for the Australian Local Government Association.
Born in Perth, Ms Lynch moved to Adelaide at a very young age. After completing high school she moved to Canberra to attend ANU, studying politics, English literature and the arts.
After finding a love for journalism with university newspaper “Woroni” – Ms Lynch began working as a cadet journalist at “The Canberra Times”.
She left Canberra for London and later Adelaide, but returned to Canberra to further her political career.
Now tackling “very contentious” housing issues with REIA, she’s established Canberra her home for the unforeseeable future – pursuing her interests in the arts as chair of M16 Artspace.
Hi Amanda. Great to read about your career and to see you doing so well. I have very fond memories of studying English Literature at the ANU during the period when you were there. All the best. Geoff Bale
Hi Geoff. Thanks for your comments. They were great days and looking back on it, studying the classics was a good grounding for the future. Glad you have fond memories too. I still see a few people from that era – keep in touch. I am on Linked In. Best regards, Amanda
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