‘We have options’: Albanese escalates battle for cheap housing

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is poised to bypass the Senate and finance thousands of affordable homes in the nation’s suburbs to deal with spiralling rents while opening the door to a double dissolution election on the country’s housing crisis.

After the Greens and Coalition joined together to delay a vote on the government’s $10 billion signature Housing Australia Future Fund until October 16, Albanese on Monday signalled the government was hardening its resolve to boost housing supply.

The prime minister’s comments escalate a war of words over housing policy with the Greens.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

On Saturday, Albanese announced $2 billion in direct funding for social and affordable housing to states and territories in exchange for reforms to planning laws, increasing pressure on the Greens to support the federal government’s key housing legislation.

The Greens are demanding a nationwide two-year rent freeze and a limit to rent increases in exchange for its support. The Coalition is opposed to the housing fund, which would be used to finance the construction of 30,000 social and affordable homes by 2029, on cost grounds.

Albanese told parliament the Greens’ proposal would actually reduce rental supply at a time when the country needed more properties to drive down prices and rents.

He said while the Greens and Coalition could block debate on the housing fund in the Senate, the government could go it alone as it had with its $2 billion social housing boost for the states and territories.

“There are a range of things open to the government to do policy-wise that we don’t need a Senate which has decided to block everything. We will take up those options,” he said.

“It is a pity that the Greens political party have chosen to make themselves irrelevant to the debate. Because by refusing to participate just like the Coalition do on these issues, they can take no responsibility for anything that this government does.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt said the party had deferred debate on housing until after the next national cabinet meeting in August, and their support would depend on what happens in the rental space through that meeting.

“It is up to Labor to act on soaring rent increases if they want to get their housing legislation through,” he said.

In a sign the government is considering its electoral options around housing, Special Minister for State Don Farrell said the government would consider that four-month delay “a failure of the Senate to pass the bill”, hinting it could be the first step in a double dissolution trigger.

Legislation needs to be voted down twice to allow the government to use it as a trigger for dissolving both chambers of parliament and calling an early election. Governments generally like to have the option of a double dissolution election, even if they do not use it.

Under a double dissolution election, the last of which was held in 2016, all 76 senators face an election rather than half in during an ordinary election.

Jacqui Lambie Network senator Tammy Tyrell said while she could understand the extra demands from the Greens, their actions were hurting people suffering right now.

“I know people that are sleeping in their cars and couch surfing and they don’t want to wait a day longer … something is always better than nothing,” she said.

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