Labor prepared for housing bills to fail rather than accept Greens’ ‘economically irresponsible’ demands

The Government says they are prepared to let two housing policies fail rather than accept “economically irresponsible” and “unlawful” proposals from the Greens.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil has turned down the Greens’ latest offer on the two bills — Build to Rent and Help to Buy — labelling their proposal as “not a real attempt to negotiate” but rather a “political stunt”.

In return for passing the two bills through the Senate, the minor party had dropped their demands on negative gearing and rent caps, and had instead asked Labor to commit an increased number of affordable homes to be allocated under Build to Rent, additional affordable homes be built under the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF), and scrapping reimbursement requirements for beneficiaries of the proposed shared equity scheme if they go above the income threshold.

Ms O’Neil said she had sought advice from Treasury and Housing Australia, and concluded “the proposals being put forward were nonsense”.

“They were unlawful, they were unworkable, and in one instance would result in the construction of fewer homes than the bill that’s proposed,” she said.

She said the Greens’ push for Labor to undermine the HAFF and green-light proposals the body had turned down was against the legislation the minor party had voted for. Some of the unsuccessful projects were not value for money, at a cost of up to $1.8m per home.

“We’ve had two and a half years now in a term where the Greens have worked with Peter Dutton to block and delay everything that our government has tried to do on housing and the end net consequence of all of that is more homelessness, fewer social and affordable homes being built and less home ownership for people who really need and deserve it,” Ms O’Neil said.

Unless the minor party changes their mind, the two Bills are set to be voted down in the Senate this week.

Labor MP Matt Thistlethwaite said the Greens’ approach was “off with the pixies” and made no economic sense.

“It’s economically irresponsible and it costs $20 billion, about $1.8 million per social house and that’s simply not affordable,” he said.

Greens senator Larissa Waters said the Government had shut the minor party down at “every opportunity”.

“We came back with what we thought was a really moderate offer which would still help about 60,000 people by just funding an additional 25,000 homes, and I’m incredulous that overnight we heard the Government say they won’t even do that,” she said.

“I think renters and people who are trying to (buy) their own home will be astounded that it seems like the prime minister’s ego is getting in the way of people having the homes that they need. I can’t quite understand the psychology there.”

Independent senator David Pocock said while most Australians would support what the Greens were proposing in principle - more housing being delivered - Labor’s bills were “importance pieces of the puzzle”.

“In a housing crisis, I think we have two bills that are not going to solve everything but are important pieces of the puzzle. These are really good steps forward,” he said.

“And so if the Government’s willing to amend the legislation, I think it’s a real good.”