With housing insecurity increasing, property prices continuing to rise and the Reserve Bank predicting further increases in rent, calls are growing louder for governments to do more on Australia’s housing crisis.
Labor had announced a housing future fund as part of its election commitments, but has struggled to get its legislation through a progressive Senate, with the Greens pushing for further action.
In response, Labor announced an extra $2bn for social housing on Saturday as a booster payment.
So what happens next?
What is Labor’s housing policy?
Labor is pushing a Housing Australia Future Fund (also known as the Haff).
It’s a $10bn investment fund where the dividends would be used to build social and affordable housing. At least $500m a year would be spent on the housing sector – with Albanese saying that over the first five years the fund would build 20,000 social housing properties, with 4,000 of those to be allocated for women and children fleeing domestic violence, and for older women on low incomes at risk of homelessness.
Read our explainer on the legislation, here.
How has it been received?
There have been a few major criticisms. For one, the fund wouldn’t start until 2024, with the first builds not scheduled until 2025. The government believes the fund would create 30,000 homes in the first five years, but the Greens say this will not go far enough to solve the problem, and that the number needed would be closer to 700,000.
What do the Greens want?
The Greens have scaled back their demands which at one stage included a $5bn direct spend on housing every year and an additional $1.6bn a year to incentivise the states. The party also wanted a rent freeze for 2.5 years and limited increases there after.
Earlier this month, the Greens announced it would settle for a $2.5bn annual spend on housing and a year of rent freezes.
Has the government offered to compromise?
The government has made the $500m spend a “floor not a ceiling”, meaning it would be the minimum spent each year over the five-year investment.
Albanese and housing minister Julie Collins have repeatedly said the Haff is just one piece in their housing policy pie and there would be more initiatives, including direct action with the states, to complement it.
Collins says $575m would be allocated from the national housing infrastructure facility for social and affordable homes, as would $350m through the national housing accord for 10,000 new affordable rental homes.
Other concessions included indexation of payouts from the Housing Australia Future Fund from 2029; a review to be completed by December 2026; energy efficiency standards in new homes; and $200m from the fund for the repair, maintenance and improvement of housing in remote Indigenous communities.
What is happening with rents?
The Albanese government has put renters’ rights on the national cabinet agenda but has continued to reject the Greens’ claims it could force a national rental freeze.
The Greens have cited the energy market intervention as proof it could work, with housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather saying it would be a “brave” state or territory government which turned down funds to make housing cheaper.
But Albanese told parliament last week each of the states and territories were in agreement and had advice a rental freeze “would not work”.
The Albanese government says the issue is housing supply and that will be the priority .
So what about supply?
That’s where the $2bn social housing “booster” payment comes in. At least in the short term.
The Albanese government announced the additional spend, which was not part of its budget offerings, on Saturday. New South Wales will receive $610m, Victoria $496m, Queensland $398m, Western Australia $209m, South Australia $135m with the rest divided between Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory, who will receive a minimum $50M.
The money will begin flowing to the states and territories in the next two weeks with the aim of “accelerating” social housing. There is no number of dwellings attached to the funds, but it can be used to expand existing programs, refurbish and renovate uninhabitable stock, or for new builds.
The states and territories have agreed that it will be in “perpetuity” which Albanese said meant “we’re not going to have public housing built and then flogged off,” which was a key criticism of previous social housing programs.
The prime minister has said that the states and territories have also agreed to look at planning laws to see what else can be done to accelerate supply.
Will it be enough to get the Greens to agree to the Haff?
The Greens say the social housing acceleration fund is proof its pressure on the government is working.
Finally, a message to all who told the Greens to pass the HAFF 6 months ago. Every time Labor tells you something is impossible or you can’t hope for more. Remember days like today. The Greens stood up and won $2b. Now we fight for more every year and a freeze on rent increases.
— Max Chandler-Mather (@MChandlerMather) June 17, 2023
The Albanese government says the $2bn is proof the Haff is not its only solution. Both have continued to publicly criticise the other for not doing enough to shift the housing crisis.
The Greens will continue to push for action for renters, with a freeze on rents its main aim. Without a compromise from either the government or the Greens on that part of the negotiations, it looks like the Haff legislation will remain stalled in the Senate.
Still, a week is an eternity in politics and things could very rapidly shift before the parliament rises for the winter break, on Thursday.
