The Greens have claimed victory in securing an additional $2bn for social housing across Australia, but say it is not yet enough to secure their support for the government’s Housing Australia Future Fund.
Instead, the Greens plan to continue to push for federal action on rent caps and freezes in a bid to deal with the country’s housing crisis.
“Everything is impossible until it’s not,” the Greens housing spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather, told a press conference on Saturday.
“Labor told us there was no more money in the budget and that the future fund was the only way to fund any new public housing. Well, today Labor has caved in to pressure from the Greens and admitted they were wrong.”
Chandler-Mather said Labor had backflipped to offer direct federal investment to build social housing.
“This is what happens when the Greens stand up to Labor and demand real action on the housing crisis. Now the Greens will keep pushing for a freeze and caps on rent increases.”
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, announced on Saturday that the federal government would establish a two-year $2bn housing accelerator fund to build new social housing stock – with money beginning to flow in a fortnight.
The announcement has been welcomed by the Greens as an overdue concession for immediate federal intervention in the housing market.
But the new commitment has not secured the Greens’ support for the government’s centrepiece housing policy, the Housing Australia Future Fund (Haff) which has promised to build 30,000 new homes over five years. The Greens have criticised the future fund element of the plan, concerned that fluctuations in investments could see little or no money generated for housing spending in any given year.
“Those negotiations are still ongoing,” Chandler-Mather said.
“Labor has admitted they can spend $2bn directly on housing, now they need to commit to investing this every year and finally take action to coordinate a freeze and caps on rent increases.”
Chandler-Mather said he was “of course” confident that further negotiations could secure federal money towards incentivising rent caps and freezes.
Albanese, in his speech to the Victorian Labor party conference, condemned the Greens for what he described as their “stubborn, inflexible refusal to compromise”, and the party’s refusal to back the government’s Haff.
“Our government is not going to wait around while members of the Greens political party call for more housing in the media while opposing it in their electorates and voting against it in the parliament,” the prime minister told ALP delegates in Melbourne.
“The Greens imagine that their stubborn, inflexible refusal to compromise or negotiate serves their political interest … the Greens have blocked more houses than they’ve ever built.”
Albanese said the $2bn would deliver “thousands of new social rental homes across the country”.
“This is new money – right now – for new social housing.”
The Property Council of Australia welcomed the government’s $2bn social housing accelerator plan as a positive step in addressing Australia’s housing affordability crisis.
“For decades, Australia has not supplied enough social, key worker or at-market housing to keep up with demand, let alone apply downward pressure on prices,” the council’s chief executive, Mike Zorbas, said.
“One million new homes by 2029 should be a very modest target for a nation with our advantages but with further delays in the Senate and the deep declines in new apartment construction in particular, we may fall short.”
