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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has reserved the right to call an election any time from early next year if the Greens block Labor’s $10 billion housing bill a second time, as the crossbench party says the government is more interested in triggering a double dissolution than negotiating on renters’ rights.
As the government prepares to table its unchanged housing affordability package in parliament next week, neither Labor nor the Greens have displayed any signs of compromise.
Anthony Albanese (left) said he couldn’t be more serious about getting the legislation passed while Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather said the PM had committed a “desperate act”.Credit: Fairfax Media
The Greens will on Saturday doorknock voters in Labor-held metropolitan seats across NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia to argue their case after the party’s housing spokesman, Max Chandler-Mather, said they would not budge on their campaign for rent freezes and further billions for social and affordable housing.
In a letter sent to Albanese on Friday, Chandler-Mather and acting Greens leader Mehreen Faruqi said the Greens were willing to pass the Housing Australia Future Fund bill in return for funding to co-ordinate the sort of reforms being mulled in Victoria, which include two-year rent freezes, and the allocation of $2.5 billion of the budget’s $20 billion surplus for public housing.
“Unfortunately, we are rapidly forming the view that Labor is more interested in getting a double dissolution trigger than acting on the housing and rental crisis,” the letter reads.
“Given Labor does not have a majority in the Senate, we call on you to work co-operatively with us to ensure the passage of the bill, rather than refusing to compromise.”
The prospect of further delays to housing reform in a supply crisis prompted one member of the Senate, Tasmania’s Tammy Tyrrell, and Master Builders Association head Denita Wawn to urge the Greens to support the bill.
The Coalition’s acting leader, Sussan Ley, condemned the bill on Friday, in effect dealing the opposition out of negotiations.
“I think it’s pretty awful to threaten Australians with an early election because of a policy that doesn’t stack up,” she said at a press conference in Adelaide.
The Greens teamed up with the Coalition and One Nation in June to defer a vote on the bill in the Senate until October 16. A failure to pass the bill a second time could trigger a double dissolution, in which the House and all seats in the Senate are up for grabs.
“The way in which you rule out having a double-dissolution election is to not have triggers. That’s the way that you rule it out. I want this legislation to be passed. I can’t be more serious,” Albanese told a press conference alongside an affordable housing provider in Brisbane on Friday.
“We don’t want to play politics with this, we want this to build additional social housing. That’s what we’re about making a difference.”
The proposed $10 billion investment fund would provide $500 million annually to build social and affordable housing. The government had said it would be used to build 30,000 social and affordable homes in the fund’s first five years.
The federal government has rejected the Greens’ demands for $5 billion annually for social and affordable housing and a rent freeze, and knocked back a later offer to pass the bill for $2.5 billion in social housing.
On ABC Radio Brisbane, Albanese ruled out the possibility of staging an election this year, while later telling the press conference he did not “anticipate” one, and also urged the Senate to bring on debate over the bill.
University of NSW constitutional law expert George Williams said once the threshold for a double dissolution had been crossed, the prime minister could legally keep the option “in his back pocket” until January 2025 – six months from the expiry of the term of the current House of Representatives.
An election called under the normal process could be held as soon as August next year.
Chandler-Mather said Albanese had committed a “desperate act” and was increasingly isolated even within the Labor movement after the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union called for a Greens-style tax on major corporations to fund housing supply, while Victoria floated the possibility of rent control.
“They are telling the public they would rather force the country back to another election rather than spend just an extra $2.5 billion a year on public housing and limit rent increases,” he said.
The war of attrition has frustrated crossbench senators eager to boost housing supply, with Tyrrell on Friday saying she did not want the opportunity lost “because the Greens are feeling sensitive”, adding that Labor’s bill was a “damn good place to start” in fixing the housing crisis.
Australian National University’s Ian McAllister, a professor in political science, said a double dissolution would make it easier for minor parties to get elected as the threshold was half that of a normal half-Senate election.
“It’s a double-edged sword [for the government],” he said. “You’re risking with a substantial minor party or independent vote in the Senate [a situation] that you simply couldn’t get your legislation through anyway.”
Chandler-Mather said he would leave it to Labor strategists to work out what would happen in that scenario, however, a Greens MP who spoke on the condition of anonymity said it would be dangerous for the minor party to go to a double dissolution, as Labor would likely come out with an increased majority in the lower house.
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