Labor has much-needed win on housing policy

The Federal Government has had a win on housing, with the Greens agreeing to pass its Help to Buy and Build to Rent legislation even though Labor refused further negotiation with the minor party over the bills.

Help to Buy was the first to be passed, with no amendments, on Tuesday morning (26 November).

Minor technical tweaks were made by the government, necessitating a formality back in the Lower House.

The bill was approved in the House of Representatives in February but hit a roadblock in the Senate, with the Federal Opposition against it – and repeatedly linking migration to the housing crisis – and the Greens playing hardball seeking concessions on negative gearing and coordinated rent caps.

But the government stood firm, seeing the Greens relent and give it the numbers to pass the Senate.

The scheme allows for the government to co-purchase up to 40,000 houses with first homebuyers.

It is modelled on similar schemes in some states and territories and international examples.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil, who has spent the past weeks arguing with the Greens over the legislation’s stalled progression, praised the crossbench party during the Reps’ question time on Tuesday.

“I’ve had a little bit of constructive criticism to offer the Greens in recent days … but let’s all agree … that at least the Greens are showing a modicum of interest in housing policy in this country,” she said.

The Minister added that the Coalition wasn’t even interested in discussing the policy.

Shadow housing minister Michael Sukkar told the National Press Club just before question time the same day that both bills were unworkable.

“They’re terrible policies, which is why we are, in many respects, we’re unsurprised but dismayed that the Greens are now supporting it,” he said.

“On Build to Rent, the Greens have sold out.

“They’ll vote with Labor to give preferential tax treatment to foreign corporates to own housing stock in this country for build-to-rent developments.”

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie subsequently told ABC television the Coalition would “absolutely” repeal the Help to Buy legislation if it wins the next election.

“We have been really clear about where we want to target our assistance in the homing space,” she said.

Reducing red tape was a focus of the Coalition housing position.

“It is in the boring stuff like sewage, water and power, and our $5 billion over a five-year period will unlock 500,000 houses,” she said.

For their part, the Greens say they only decided to wave the legislation through to focus on campaigning for renters and against the Coalition and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton at the next election.

But Greens leader Adam Bandt said Labor has given up on first-home buyers and renters by refusing to negotiate on amendments.

“There comes a point where you’ve pushed as far as you can. We tried hard to get Labor to shift on soaring rents and negative gearing, but we couldn’t get there this time,” Mr Bandt said.

“We’ll wave the housing bills through and take the fight to the next election, where we’ll keep Peter Dutton out and then push Labor to act on unlimited rent rises and tax handouts to wealthy property investors.”

Greens Housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather also expressed his frustration.

“We have pushed as hard as possible to get Labor to do more than tinkering around the edges of this devastating housing crisis in this term of parliament, but in the end, we just couldn’t get Labor to care enough,” he said.

“We got close. Labor costed changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.

“We were inches away from the most significant changes to housing policy in a generation that would have helped hundreds of thousands of renters, but the Prime Minister blinked, and that is deeply disappointing.”

The Build to Rent bill, which aims to release pressure in the tight rental market by encouraging the development of tens of thousands of new rental homes, is also set to pass this week.