The Greens have stared down a Labor push to accelerate debate on the government’s $10bn housing Australia future fund bill, voting with the Coalition to block a move to guarantee a vote on Thursday.
In an acrimonious debate, the Labor Senate leader Penny Wong said the minor party had joined a filibuster against the bill.
She accused the Greens housing spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather, of putting his “ego” and desire for media attention above the need for more housing for victims of domestic violence. Wong withdrew the comments.
Senator Jacqui Lambie made an impassioned plea to the Greens to help pass the bill and “keep chipping away” at the problem of poor housing affordability, and Labor also won support from independent senator David Pocock.
But shortly before 10am the bid to guarantee a vote at 1pm failed 23 votes to 41, with the Coalition, Greens, One Nation and the United Australia party’s Ralph Babet voting the motion down.
After 1pm, the Coalition and Greens voted together to reorder business, adding three government bills ahead of housing, making a vote on Thursday unlikely unless there is a last-minute deal.
For months Labor and the Greens have been at loggerheads in negotiations over the bill, which risks being delayed until June unless a further Friday sitting is scheduled to rubber stamp a possible Labor-Greens deal.
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 Coalition opposes the bill. The Greens say they will not support it unless the government offers substantial improvements, with a starting position in negotiations of wanting $5bn of direct spending on housing and a national rent freeze.
On Friday Guardian Australia revealed that Labor would push for a vote this week after securing the Lambie Network’s support.
The housing minister, Julie Collins, has made concessions in negotiations including a promise to index the $500m annual maximum payout from the fund from 2029.
The government also made an extra $2bn in financing available to support social and affordable rental homes, and lifted the maximum rate of rent assistance by 15%.
But on Wednesday afternoon the Greens voted against a guillotine to force a vote, and did so again on Thursday morning.
Wong told the Senate “your spokesperson on housing is now prioritising media attention [over] housing for women and kids fleeing domestic violence”. “That’s shameful you know, this man’s ego.”
The comments were withdrawn, after Greens senator Nick McKim said she was “well out of order” in impugning the motives of Chandler-Mather, the MP for Griffith in Brisbane.
The Coalition’s Senate leader, Simon Birmingham, said Labor and the Greens appeared to be having a “lovers’ tiff” and the government was obviously “feeling the pressure when they start to personalise the debate”.
Birmingham said the Coalition would not agree to the guillotine because the bill deserved “fair debate”.
Lambie said the bill was “not perfect” but warned “people out there need a roof over their heads”.
Addressing the Greens, Lambie said: “Please, for you people over here, that think you have a social conscience? Do you really want to keep playing with people’s lives? Do you really?”
Lambie said with the biggest slice of the balance of power, the Greens could “keep chipping away” at the housing problem, using the bill as a “base” to get started.
“We need this to get through. We cannot hold this up another day.”
The Greens’ Peter Whish-Wilson claimed that Lambie had been “conned” by Labor to support the bill, after a deal guaranteeing a minimum of 1,200 social and affordable houses in each territory and state over five years.
Chandler-Mather told reporters in Canberra that “despite all the bluster … the Greens are committed to negotiating a good outcome”.
He said the bill was “our chance” to force the government to take bolder action on the housing crisis.
Chandler-Mather revealed the Greens party room will be meeting on Friday to discuss negotiations. “We are treating this as our highest priority right now.”
