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Housing standoff continues after government rejects Greens’ Help to Buy compromise
Josh Butler
The government has rejected the Greens’ latest compromise offer to pass the Help to Buy housing bill, continuing the long-running stand-off into the parliament’s final week for 2024.
Government sources said the Greens’ demands would be variously unlawful, unhelpful or require spending Labor saw as wasteful. The government is now challenging the Greens to back the Help to Buy bill anyway, still not budging on any demands – with a final vote in the Senate scheduled for tomorrow. Clare O’Neill has today said:
This continuous charade from the Greens has to stop. You get the distinct impression the Greens want Australians to continue to be in housing distress, so Adam Bandt can try to harvest those grievances into votes. It’s the crassest form of politics there is, straight out of the Peter Dutton playbook.
After initially demanding changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, among other requests, the Greens last week backed down and gave a revised list of compromises for their support. They included the government funding more homes under the Housing Australia Future Fund within the next year, increasing the number of affordable tenancies under the Build to Rent legislation, and altering settings around Help To Buy. Greens housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather said yesterday:
The Greens are offering Labor an opportunity to announce the construction of 25,000 social and affordable homes, helping over 60,000 people into affordable homes in the middle of a housing crisis, why on earth would Labor block that?
But the government has rejected the updated offer, claiming the Greens’ ideas won’t work and that they would go against legislation banning the minister from making specific funding decisions. The employment minister, Murray Watt, a senior government voice in the Senate, said yesterday that passing Help to Buy was the government’s biggest priority this week.
O’Neil said:
Consistently throughout this Parliament, the Greens have blocked and delayed action on the housing crisis, looking for every excuse to vote down legislation which is clearly good for the country.
The Build to Rent saga continues ahead of the vote coming this week. It remains to be seen how the Greens will vote.
Welcome
Emily Wind
Good morning and welcome back to the Australian politics live blog, as we begin the final sitting week of the year. There is a raft of legislation the government is still hoping to pass, with MPs and senators not due to return until February – and possibly not until the other side of an election if Anthony Albanese calls one in late January.
So, can Labor pass its legislative agenda? Paul Karp has written this analysis, a must-read for the week ahead.
On the Help to Buy housing bill, the government has rejected the Greens’ latest compromise offer to pass the legislation, continuing the long-running stand-off. Josh Butler will have all the details in a moment.
The under-16 social media age ban – likely to pass with the backing of the opposition – remains the topic of much discussion after the three-day inquiry only opened submissions for a single day. The eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant spoke with ABC RN earlier and said it was her role to “enforce the laws”, not endorse, and that it was a matter for the parliament. We’ll bring you more of her comments in a moment.
And in New South Wales politics, more than 58,000 homes will be built on land around eight Sydney train stations, with the state government expected to release their master plans for the precincts today.
I’m Emily Wind and I’ll be taking you through our rolling coverage today. You’ll have the whole Canberra team bringing you the latest – Karen Middleton, Josh Butler, Paul Karp, Sarah Basford Canales and Mike Bowers.
Let’s get started.