PM savages Greens after Senate blocks housing bill

Anthony Albanese has launched a blistering attack on the Greens, labelling them hypocrites and accusing them of choosing politics over more public housing.

Anthony Albanese in question time savaged the Greens for their opposition to Labor’s signature housing policy. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Anthony Albanese has launched a blistering attack on the Greens, labelling them hypocrites and accusing them of prioritising political advantage over public housing after the minor party teamed up with Coalition senators to block Labor’s signature $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund.

The Prime Minister in question time said the Greens did not have “the guts” to oppose the bill, and voting on the legislation will now be delayed until October 16 after the minor party said its demands for a federally co-ordinated rental freeze had not been met.

Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather again demanded the Prime Minister work with the states and territories to “impose national limits on rent increases”, claiming “millions of renters are in crisis and many (are) one rent increase away from eviction”.

As experts warned the four-month delay would come at the expense of thousands of home building approvals, a furious Mr Albanese said the Greens “oppose every new (land) zoning, because they’ve never seen a medium-density development they supported”.

“The fact is that those opposite have prioritised protesting, they have prioritised building up a profile, they have prioritised politics rather than prioritising building public housing, which is why they voted in the Senate to block the bill by deferring it,” he said.

“I say to the Greens, in deferring this legislation yet again they should at least have the guts to vote against 30,000 additional social housing units.”

Mr Albanese said he understood renters were “doing it tough”. “That’s why we have a renters’ rights agreement (that) we’re working (through) with states and territories. But what we are not doing is destroying supply while we do it,” he said.

“Because the key to fixing housing is supply. And if we did what those opposite want us to do, there will be less supply of housing going forward, and that is what they don’t seem to comprehend.”

Master Builders Australia chief executive Denita Wawn said the delay to the HAFF was “disappointing”, and urged the Senate to “put politics aside”.

“The HAFF is one piece of the housing puzzle, and unnecessary delays do nothing to ease the concerns of Australians who deserve access to affordable housing,” Ms Wawn said.

PowerHousing Australia CEO Nicholas Proud said the delay until October could mean approvals for 8000 social and affordable homes would be delayed.

“At this rate, the delay of the Senate to not pass the HAFF legislation will potentially see not one single new home delivered in this political term, which is a tragedy,” Mr Proud said.

“Homes don’t magically appear; just ask people who are at risk of falling out of housing, there aren’t enough of them and they take time to deliver.”

Trade Minister Don Farrell branded the Greens and Coalition an anti-housing “axis of evil” and warned that failing to pass the bill would be a first step to providing the government with a double-dissolution election trigger.

“If the Senate defers bills to October, the government will regard this as the Senate failing to pass the bill, and I’m sure you understand the consequences of that,” Senator Farrell said in the Senate prior to Monday’s vote.

Coalition Senate leader Simon Birmingham told Sky News “we think this is a policy that won’t make any meaningful short-term difference to social housing or to the housing market in Australia”.

“It will, though, add millions of dollars in debt,” Senator Birmingham said.

Mr Albanese at the weekend announced $2bn in federal funding for the states and territories to build “thousands” of new social homes across Australia in the next two years.

The government has also offered to make the annual $500m ongoing investment in social housing from the HAFF a minimum rather than a cap, while the budget included the largest rise in rent assistance in 30 years.