Housing stoush reignites as $10 billion fund returns to parliament

The Albanese government’s threat to hold an early election over its signature $10 billion housing policy will draw a step closer when the laws return to parliament on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has left the door open to a double dissolution of both houses of parliament and an early election – though not before 2024 – as he ratchets up pressure on the Coalition and Greens to back the policy Labor took to the election.

Housing Minister Julie Collins will reintroduce Labor’s $10 billion housing bill to parliament on Wednesday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The Coalition and Greens teamed up to stop the passage of the housing bill in June. The reintroduction of the unchanged legislation, with a vote delayed until October, means three months will have elapsed, setting up a double-dissolution trigger if it again fails to pass.

That ups the heat on the Greens, which want Labor to significantly boost its plan to spend $500 million a year to build 30,000 social and affordable homes over five years and freeze rents, to back the government’s policy or face voters.

On Monday, Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather said the minor party was willing to discuss a number between Labor’s $500 million and the $2.5 billion in funding for housing the Greens had asked for. They had already halved their demand from $5 billion and reduced the money they want for a rent freeze from $1.6 billion to $1 billion.

Housing Minister Julie Collins and Chandler-Mather are due to meet later this week to restart negotiations over housing policy. But neither side expects serious progress until Albanese and Greens leader Adam Bandt sit down together, which is not expected to be for weeks.

A Greens strategist, who asked not to be named so they could speak freely, said the party “don’t think Labor’s being serious. If they want to go to a national election fighting the Greens to build less housing and not help renters, I don’t think that will end well for them”.

Collins said reintroducing the Housing Australia Future Fund bill demonstrated the government was using every process available to pass important legislation that would build tens of thousands of new homes.

“The Greens and the Liberals should get out of the way and back this secure, ongoing pipeline of funding for social and affordable housing,” she said.

“Every day of delay is $1.3 million less that can be spent on housing Australians in need. We cannot afford any further delays.”

Albanese has said he would prefer the fund to become law rather than being blocked again, which would hand him an early election trigger.

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