Greens demand changes to back key Labor housing policies in the Senate

The Greens’ Max Chandler-Mather is ramping up pressure on Labor’s new housing minister, Clare O’Neil, to come back to the table and negotiate on two of the government’s key housing programs.

Just days after O’Neil was shifted to housing from the troubled Home Affairs portfolio, Chandler-Mather – who has campaigned hard for the government to adopt the Greens’ more ambitious housing policies – urged her to reverse Labor’s decision not to negotiate with the Greens.

The Greens’ housing spokesman, Max Chandler-Mather, says Housing Minister Clare O’Neil now oversees one of the most expensive and overheated housing and rental markets in the world.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

At the centre of the debate are two of Labor’s signature policies – a Help to Buy program under which the federal government would contribute up to 40 per cent of the purchase price of a new home and a Build to Rent scheme designed to encourage investment in the construction of new apartments.

The Greens voted against Help to Buy in the lower house in February, while they have demanded changes to Build to Rent and reserved their position while it is before a Senate inquiry.

Labor has argued that the $32 billion for housing it has promised to help build 1.2 million new dwellings under its Homes for Australia plan is a record funding commitment from the Commonwealth.

But Chandler-Mather’s criticism of Labor’s program contributed to the decision by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to move former minister Julie Collins, who was seen as ineffectual, to agriculture and replace her with O’Neil before a federal election in which housing affordability will be a decisive factor.

In a letter to the incoming minister shared with this masthead, Chandler-Mather argued that O’Neil now oversaw one of the most expensive and overheated housing and rental markets in the world and that “all the Albanese Labor government has done is tinker around the edges”.

“Over the next 10 years, the federal government will give $175 billion in tax handouts to property investors through negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount,” the Greens’ housing spokesman wrote.

“By comparison, this Labor government has committed to zero dollars of new ongoing direct spending on public housing, and just $500 million a year for social housing through the Housing Australia Future Fund.

“While the one-off $3 billion [for social housing] the Greens secured is welcome, it is still a drop in the ocean. As a result, the shortage of social and affordable housing is projected to increase under this government from an already unacceptable high of 750,000 homes.”

Chandler-Mather again called for negative gearing and the capital gains discount to be phased out, a two-year national rent freeze and a suite of other Greens policies to be implemented.

To secure the crossbench party’s crucial Senate votes for Labor’s housing policies, Chandler-Mather asked for further downward pressure on property prices – without specifying what form that would take.

To win support for Build to Rent, he said the government should guarantee that 100 per cent of apartments built under the scheme would be affordable for people on low and middle incomes.

A spokesman for O’Neil declined to comment.

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