The Greens have once again managed to stall the government’s housing agenda, annoying Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to no end in the process.
Today the minor party will move for a two-month delay to a Senate vote on Labor’s Help to Buy bill after housing discussions with the government reached a stalemate. Yesterday the government was unable to suspend standing orders so that the scheme could be voted on. Help to Buy would give 40,000 first-home buyers access to cheaper deposits through a shared equity scheme with the federal government.
Albanese and his frontbench colleagues reacted by going on a social media blitz to try to shame the Greens over disallowing the vote. Housing Minister Clare O’Neil shared a graphic that said: “The Greens & Liberals have just voted down Labor’s legislation to help renters buy their first home”.
Albanese wrote on X that “the Liberals and Greens just voted to block more help to buy a home” and was corrected by a “community note” pointing out that the bill had not, in fact, been blocked.
In a radio interview with the ABC on Tuesday afternoon, Albanese complained the Greens were “voting to not have a vote over and over again, just like they did with the Housing Australia Future Fund”.
“This is a Senate-only sitting week. They’ve been sitting for two days. They haven’t passed a single thing, they haven’t voted on anything. They’re just talking away, stopping things being voted on,” he said.
So what do the Greens actually want? Housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather has a list of demands, or as he calls them, “key negotiating asks”: “Action on freezing and capping rents, ending tax handouts for property investors that stop renters buying their first home, and establishing a government-owned property developer”.
According to Chandler-Mather, the Greens met with O’Neil over the past few weeks, but Labor did not make “a single counteroffer”.
“Our message back to the prime minister would be to stop bulldozing and start negotiating,” Greens leader Adam Bandt told ABC Radio on Wednesday morning, claiming the Labor bill would be a “bandaid” that wouldn’t “touch the sides” of the housing crisis.
Albanese maintains his government’s bills “stand on their own merits” without amendments, and has not ruled out dissolving Parliament and calling an early election if the legislation fails to pass.
O’Neil said a double dissolution was a decision for the prime minister, but noted her government had a lot of work to do.
“We’re not going to be stopping our agenda on housing because of these politicians playing politics,” she told Nine’s Today show.
“They should be putting politics to the side and letting our government get on with the job of helping Australians.
“It is just beyond me why a bill as straightforward as this is not getting the support of the Parliament.”
The Coalition is also standing against the bill, with opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume claiming Australians will not sign up.
“It allows the government to own a great big chunk of your home,” she told Seven’s Sunrise program.
Written with contribution from AAP.
