Government's housing bill set to be re-introduced to parliament

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Prime Minister is threatening the senate with the prospect of an early election if it doesn't pass his signature housing policy. The Greens are not supporting the legislation and are accusing the government of refusing to properly negotiate on the matter.

Transcript

00:00 The Prime Minister is effectively saying that if the Senate doesn't play ball here, he will

00:05 put this matter to the Australian people and have a trigger for an early election, a double

00:11 dissolution election where the entire Senate seats are up for grabs as compared to a normal

00:17 election where only half the Senate is up for election at any one time.

00:21 This $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund is designed to support 30,000 new social

00:27 and affordable homes over the next couple of years or so.

00:30 It has stalled in the Senate a couple of weeks ago before the long winter break.

00:35 The Greens and the Coalition had teamed up to effectively kick this into the long grass

00:40 there, stopping it being brought on for a vote.

00:44 If this happens again, or indeed there is a vote on this legislation and it is blocked,

00:49 the government believes it will have a double dissolution trigger that the Prime Minister

00:53 can have sitting in his back pocket to use at any moment there.

00:58 This is something that has been the subject of a lot of debate here in Canberra and right

01:02 across the country, whether or not this policy will actually go far enough to ease the housing

01:08 crisis.

01:09 That's certainly the concern the Greens have, saying that it is not the best way to tackle

01:14 the situation and that it doesn't go anywhere near far enough to ease those concerns across

01:20 the country.

01:21 But the Prime Minister is remaining steadfast with this legislation to be reintroduced.

01:25 He was on ABC Radio Sydney this morning and he insisted that while he doesn't necessarily

01:29 want to go to an early election, he's keeping his options open.

01:34 I'd rather not have it.

01:36 I'd rather have this policy passed.

01:38 But of course, a double dissolution trigger, what that does is doesn't necessarily provide

01:44 for an early election.

01:47 It could go into 2025.

01:49 But what it does is mean that that can be a focus.

01:54 And then you have a joint sitting after a double dissolution election is held.

01:59 But I just want this legislation to be passed.

02:02 The Prime Minister speaking earlier this morning, now he's accusing the Greens of playing politics

02:07 on this and not negotiating.

02:08 In turn, the Greens are accusing him of playing politics and not negotiating.

02:12 Funny that when they're talking about politicians and then their behaviour.

02:15 Max Chandler-Mather is the Greens housing spokesperson and he says that clearly the

02:20 party has a list of demands.

02:22 It wants things like rent freezes and rent caps as part of this legislation, something

02:26 that the Prime Minister says is outside of his control and would require the states and

02:31 territories to put in place.

02:32 And they don't want to do that.

02:34 But regardless, Max Chandler-Mather says that the party is not budging and is also not concerned

02:40 or not scared by the threat of a double dissolution election.

02:43 Well, of course, in any negotiation, we should be prepared to vote down a bill if the government

02:48 refuses to move.

02:49 I would be very clear that the government is now reintroducing their bill into the House

02:53 unchanged, and then threatening an election.

02:56 And what we'd like to see is us come together and work out a plan that actually starts to

03:01 tackle the scale of the crisis.

03:04 One thing that we should keep an eye on is some of the changes to the unemployment benefits

03:08 jobseeker, the proposal that was announced in the budget of increasing that rate.

03:14 That legislation does need to be dealt with in this set of parliamentary sittings for

03:17 it to come into effect from September.

03:19 But we have also already heard from the federal opposition saying that they want to amend

03:24 that legislation.

03:25 The $40 a week increase doesn't go far enough.

03:29 So $40 a fortnight increase doesn't go far enough to actually helping people and that

03:33 they want the eligibility requirements around jobseeker to be tinkered with instead.

03:38 So that could also provide for some interesting debate in both the House and particularly

03:43 in the Senate as politicians make their way back to Canberra after that winter break.

03:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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