Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather has written to new portfolio minister Clare O’Neil asking for the government to negotiate with the minor party to “pass an ambitious response to the housing crisis".
Labor has two key housing bills before the parliament including its Help to Buy legislation establishing a shared equity program to assist Australians into the market and its Build to Rent bill aimed at increasing the supply of rental housing.
Mr Chandler-Mather said the Greens would not vote for the Help to Buy shake-up “without additional action to put downward pressure on house prices” and expressed major concerns about the Built to Rent legislation.
“On Build to Rent, the Greens are concerned that tax breaks for developers to build unaffordable apartments will do nothing to put downward pressure on rents, which is why we moved in the Senate for a longer inquiry on this legislation,” he said. “We have requested a government guarantee that 100 per cent of the apartments built under this scheme will be actually affordable for people on low and middle incomes – hardly a radical proposal.”
Mr Chandler-Mather reaffirmed a series of Greens demands on the government including a phase out of negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount, a two-year freeze on rent increases coordinated through the national cabinet as well as an ongoing cap on rent increases, and the construction by government of 710,000 homes over the decade to be “rented and sold for cheap”.
In addition, Mr Chandler-Mather said the Greens wanted the government to double national social housing and homelessness funding to the states to $18.9bn over the next five years.
"Minister, your appointment in the middle of this crisis represents a historic opportunity to take bold action," he said. "There is broad popular support for phasing out tax handouts for investors, rent caps, and mass investment in public housing.
"I urge you to seize this opportunity to reopen negotiations with the Greens and work towards solutions that will give some hope to the millions doing it tough."