Labor launches last-ditch appeal to the Greens on housing

Labor’s bid to salvage its signature housing policy includes a guaranteed minimum $500m to build new homes each year.

Housing Minister Julie Collins says the government is prepared to compromise on its HAFF legislation to secure its passage. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Labor has offered the Greens a last-ditch compromise in a bid to salvage its signature housing policy by guaranteeing a minimum $500m investment to build new homes each year.

The $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund, which is due to be voted on in the Senate this sitting week, hit an impasse after the Greens withheld their support over concerns the fund would not deliver enough social and affordable housing to meet demand.

With the future of one of the government’s key economic measures hanging in the balance, Anthony Albanese declared reviving the country’s flatlining productivity performance was now an “urgent priority” to secure the nation’s future prosperity.

In a speech seen by The Australian to be delivered to a Committee for Economic Devel­opment of Australia conference on Tuesday morning, the Prime Minister said improving efficiency among workers in the ballooning care sectors would be key to lifting the economy’s productive capacity.

“In the decade ahead, we ­cannot settle for a situation where the fastest-growing sector of our economy is delivering zero productivity growth. That would only put pressure on other industries to somehow offset the deficit, as well as undermining our future living standards,” Mr Albanese said.

Housing Minister Julie Collins wrote to Greens senators on Monday promising to remove the $500m cap on disbursements from the fund and instead guarantee the yearly investment, as the Senate prepares for a final vote.

“To provide additional certainty to the housing sector, the government will remove the cap on disbursements from the Housing Australia Future Fund from 2024-25, replaced by a guaranteed fixed disbursement of $500m per year, indexed from 2029-30, the year proposed by multiple stakeholders to the Senate inquiry,” the letter read.

“The government will also amend the legislation to allow for the yearly disbursement amount to be increased in the future by the Treasurer and Minister for ­Finance through a disallowable legislative instrument.”

Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather has demanded more funding for public and affordable housing, and a ­national rental freeze, but called on Labor over the weekend to meet them halfway, demanding $2.5bn for public and affordable housing and a rent freeze.

Ahead of the release later this year of key reports on the support economy and employment, Mr Albanese said: “Growing the care and support economy and adopting breakthroughs in technology are both critical to boosting our productivity, and that’s an urgent priority.

“Equally, we will not unlock meaningful productivity gains simply by demanding an already-stretched workforce do more with less. That’s particularly true in ­labour-intensive jobs.”

The Prime Minister said “productivity gains had to work alongside improvements in wages, conditions and standards, not against them”.

“This is where productivity isn’t about getting more work out of people, it’s about people getting more out of their work, for the benefit of both workers and ­employers,” he said.

He argued that Labor’s industrial relations reforms to “revitalise Australia’s broken workplace bargaining system” would help drive productivity growth – a claim economists and business groups dispute.

Senator Jacqui Lambie said the housing fund should have been put through in the last sitting of parliament.

“The only people holding this up are the Greens,” she said.

“Quite frankly, they should be disgusted in themselves … get this housing bill through and we can build on it as we go along.

“It’s winter, it’s freezing out there.”

Additional reporting: Sarah Ison