Labor has increased pressure on the Greens over the housing Australia future fund, signalling it wants the Senate to vote on the bill next week and labelling those opposed a “coalition of weirdos”.
That jibe was delivered by the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, on Friday ahead of a budget that he said would include “additional measures” to help renters.
The housing minister, Julie Collins, told the Guardian’s Australian Politics podcast, to be released on Saturday, that she “would like to see people have to make a decision next week” on the bill, signalling Labor wants a vote in budget week.
The Greens’ housing spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather, has written to Collins in a last-ditch bid to restart negotiations, warning he is “deeply concerned” the government would “rather let the HAFF fail than work with the Greens”.
The Albanese government is proposing a $10bn fund, the earnings from which would result in payouts of up to $500m a year to build 30,000 social and affordable homes over five years.
The Greens have refused to bring the bill to a vote unless the government offers improvements, including up to $5bn of direct spending on housing and a national rent freeze.
Chalmers told reporters in Canberra that “housing is one of the big priorities of this government”.
“In the rental market, the best thing we can do is build more supply, build more stock,” he said.
“One of the reasons why we’ve got vacancy rates so low and rent so high is we don’t have enough homes and that’s why it beggars belief that … this coalition of weirdos in the Senate – the Liberals and Nationals and Greens – have banded together to say that they will oppose building more social and affordable homes in this country.”
Chalmers said he understood that “some people want more built and some people want fewer built” but added that opposing the future fund “at a time when there’s such extreme pressure on the housing market just beggars belief”.
The bill is supported by the Jacqui Lambie Network, independent David Pocock and the housing ministers of all states and territories, leaving the Greens and Coalition increasingly isolated.
Collins told Guardian Australia “the problem here is we are moving [but] not everybody is moving”.
“We want the bill through,” she said.
Collins warned the Liberals and Greens that they should “think very carefully”, invoking previous instances where senators “have opposed action, they’ve had no action instead of some action … and it’s cost the country dearly” – an apparent reference to the Rudd government’s carbon pollution reduction scheme.
“Every delay actually delays more homes being on the ground for Australians that need them most,” she said.
“We do need to get moving – I would like to see a vote next week. I would like to see people have to make a decision about this bill in the next sitting week.
“We want to prioritise this legislation, we know we’ve got a busy week with the budget, but I would say this is pretty urgent.”
If the Greens do not support the bill coming to a vote, the Coalition would be able to decide whether to continue to delay it or agree to a vote to defeat a signature government bill and drive a wedge between Labor and the Greens.
In the Greens letter, Chandler-Mather said the minor party had “made clear that we will not support the Housing Australia Future Fund bill in its current form, as it will see the shortage of social and affordable housing get worse, do nothing for renters and not guarantee any direct funding for housing”.
He said the Greens were “willing to negotiate” from its starting point of $5bn of direct funding and a rent freeze if it received “a serious counteroffer from the government”.
“As of the time of this letter, we’re yet to receive a counteroffer which includes even a single dollar of guaranteed direct funding towards public and affordable housing, any increase in the level of investment in the HAFF or the number of homes it could build, or any meaningful measures to address rental costs.”
