Ipswich MP fires up at Greens over housing crisis

With 17 people a day moving to this battler Queensland suburb already at the frontline of the housing crisis, the local MP has demanded the Greens back Labor’s housing Bill or risk chaos.

With 17 people a day moving to the battler suburb of Ipswich, already at the frontline of the housing crisis, Blair MP Shayne Neumann has demanded the Greens “stop preening, posing and posturing” and back Labor’s housing Bill otherwise the situation will worsen by the day.

It comes as Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather seized on Parliamentary Budget Office modelling, which showed there would be almost $37.5bn in tax concessions for property investors in 2023-24, to push for more funding for social housing.

The Albanese government reintroduced its $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund into the parliament this week which, if rejected again when it goes to the Senate in October, could give Prime Minister Anthony Albanese the trigger to call a double dissolution.

Labor Blair MP Shayne Neumann. Picture: Alix Sweeney

Labor says its fund will deliver 30,000 homes over five years. The Greens argue more needs to be done for renters and to build more homes sooner.

As Labor seeks to build pressure on the Greens, Mr Neumann said the minor party was in an “unholy alliance” with the Coalition to block the Bill.

Recent data showed Ipswich suburbs with young families, such as Pine Mountain, were among the most mortgage and rental stressed in the state, while even before the housing crisis there were about 1000 people sleeping rough in the city.

“Ipswich will grow from 247,000 to 530,000 people in the next two decades. We’re getting 17 people a day coming to the city,” Mr Neumann said.

“They’re the front line of this. We need more safe, secure, affordable housing. We’re seeing more and more people sleeping rough. The time is up for the Greens to stop preening and posing and posturing on this and vote for the Bill.”

Greens Griffith MP Max Chandler-Mather. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mr Chandler-Mather said the PBO modelling showed that tax concessions for property investors, including negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts, would cost the budget $500bn over 10 years.

“That money could spend be used to build a million public homes over the next 10 years,” he said. “Our message to the government is if you can find $39bn in tax concessions for property investors, then you should be able to find $2.5bn a year for public housing and a billion dollars to incentivise a rent freeze.”

The PBO modelling noted it did not account for changes to investor behaviour that might occur from altering to negative gearing or capital gains, so it was “likely to overstate how many houses could be built”.

The Greens policy is to abolish the 50 per cent capital gains discount on houses held for more than 12 months and to phase out negative gearing for people with more than one property.