Greens say Labor is failing Australians as new housing report paints grim picture

Labor’s political opponents are lining up to demand better for Australians after a new report laid bare the significant housing crisis playing out.

Labor is “catastrophically failing” to meet the challenge of Australia’s worsening housing crisis, the Greens say, after a new government report revealed massive issues in the system.

The National Housing Supply and Affordability Council has handed its inaugural State of the Housing System annual report to Housing Minister Julie Collins this week, finding housing affordability had significantly worsened in 2023 and supply was failing to keep up with demand.

The report also found Labor’s “ambitious” plan to build 1.2 million well located homes in the next five years will not be achieved unless there is considerable effort by all jurisdiction.

The report found migration, raising interest rates, skills shortages, construction company insolvencies, cost inflation and weak consumer confidence had all contributed to weaker-than-needed housing supply.

Council chair Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz said social housing availability had not kept up with demand either, and could be further exacerbated by the pressures of rising rents in the private market.

Greens housing and homeless spokesman Max Chandler-Mather lashed Labor after a new report revealed the extent of the housing crisis. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather said Labor was failing Australians, and the report highlighted the need for “serious government intervention”.

He said the report was “basically a rationale for the Greens’ bold plan to tackle the housing crisis”, pointing to the party’s plan of a government public developer that would build homes to be sold and rented at affordable prices.

“The reality is we are not going to fix this crisis until the government stands up and starts building hundreds of thousands of homes,” he said.

The Coalition also lashed Labor, accusing them of “blatantly lying” to the country about the worsening housing crisis.

Opposition housing spokesman Michael Sukkar said Ms Collins had “failed to introduce any substantial housing policies to improve the living standards for Australians aspiring to own a home of their own”.

“Sadly, this government is completely out of ideas, and the only policies delivering support to first home buyers are the housing policies Labor inherited from the former Coalition government,” he said.

The government report revealed problems with housing supply and affordability, as well as social housing. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

Ms Collins has defended the government’s housing agenda, stressing the report was a forecast of what would happen if nothing changed, which was not Labor’s plan.

“The report does show the very significant challenges we have in Australia’s housing system. What it also is, though, is an opportunity for us to change,” she said.

“We know we need to be more ambitious, and we are ambitious. We want to turn around Australia’s housing system, and we’ve already started that work.

The report also suggested reforms to existing tax settings in a bid to bolster supply and improve affordability outcomes.

The Greens have refused to pass Labor’s Help to Buy shared equity scheme unless the government commits to grandfathering negative gearing and abolishing capital gains tax concessions, which Anthony Albanese has refused to do.

Housing Minister Julie Collins said the government was prepared to meet the challenges the report outlined. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Ms Collins doubled down on the government’s position on Friday morning.

“It’s not something we’re considering at the moment,” she told ABC Radio.

She said the government had a “full agenda of taxation reforms” it was focused on getting through parliament, pointing to the already-passed changes to personal tax, and flagged reforms to the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax and multinational tax measures.

She said the government was considering other measures: “such as changes to Build to Rent to get more investment … into Build to Rent of affordable properties”.