The Greens will position themselves as "the party of renters", leader Adam Bandt said on Wednesday, as he slammed the Albanese government's resistance to the party's demands on housing, including introducing a national rent freeze.
Mr Bandt used his address at the National Press Club to claim Labor was morphing into a centre-right party, leaving the Greens as the only "social democratic alternative".
The party is locked in negotiations with the government over its $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, which is intended to generate 30,000 social and affordable housing properties in its first five years.
But the Greens have slammed the policy for not going far enough to address a shortage of social and affordable housing and relieve pressure on renters.
"The old parties are failing to take renters seriously, but there has been a significant change," Mr Bandt said.
"We now have seats around the country where the majority of people who live in those seats rent ... more people rent than own their property in any other means.
"There is a seachange under way that has not that the others have not caught up with."
Mr Bandt promised to make rent a political issue at the next federal election, transforming the Greens into "the party of renters".
After reaching deals with Labor to pass the safeguard mechanism climate legislation and the first tranche of industrial relations reforms, the party refused to budge on the housing fund in the final parliamentary sitting week before the May federal budget.
Labor needs the support of the Greens and two crossbenchers in the Senate to pass its signature housing package.
The Greens are using negotiations to demand a national rental freeze costed at $4.8 billion over three years, to be funded through the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement.
They have have also called for a $5 billion fund to build 225,000 publicly-owned housing and a $10.9 billion proposal to double rent assistance for 1.4 million students, single parents, pensioners, people with disabilities, families and those looking for work.
The total $69.4 billion package of reforms could be offset by ending some tax breaks for the wealthy.
"Labor nods towards the crises we're facing, but comes up with plans that see the problem get worse. Basically, they're saying 'we're on it', but they're not," Mr Bandt said.
"As the Liberals become irrelevant and Labor shifts to the centre-right, the Greens' aim for the next decade is to grow our power and make real change in this country."
Speaking earlier on Wednesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese blasted the Greens as "completely illogical" for blocking the government's housing fund.
"It makes me wonder what the Greens party's political and thought processes are," Mr Albanese told reporters in Sydney.
"They are out there giving speeches saying that they want more investment in social and affordable housing and their strategy to do that is to block $10 billion to create a fund for investment in social and affordable housing that is on top of the Commonwealth state housing agreements, on top of all the other investments that the federal government will be making in housing.
