KEY POINTS
- Labor will reintroduce its signature housing policy to the lower house next week.
- It comes after the Greens and Coalition pushed back debate on the bill to October.
- The government needs the support of the Greens, who want more to be done for renters, to pass the bill in the Senate.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has challenged the Greens to back a multi-billion dollar housing package or risk facing an early election.
The federal government when parliament resumes next week in a bid to break a Senate stalemate.
The Greens and Coalition , but the government will reintroduce the same bill to the lower house.
What is the Housing Australia Future Fund, and why hasn't it been passed?
The housing fund would aim to build 30,000 homes in five years with $500 million spent on each year.
The Opposition opposes the bill, which means the federal government needs Senate crossbenchers to support the bill in order for it to pass as it does not have a majority in the upper house.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has challenged the Greens to back a multi-billion dollar housing package or risk facing an early election. Source: AAP / Dan Himbrechts
The Greens say more needs to be done for renters, and have called for a , along with a larger investment each year for housing.
Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather said the federal government was refusing to budge.
"We're willing to negotiate but a negotiation takes two to tango and the government's saying it's their way or the highway," he told Sky News on Friday.
"When their way is hundreds of thousands more people waiting for public and affordable housing and millions of renters facing financial stress, that's not a negotiation."
Chandler-Mather said some of the government's more than could be set aside for housing.
"We're not asking for the world. We're asking for a small amount of the budget surplus, $2.5 billion, to go towards public and affordable housing," he said.
Albanese said politics needed to be put aside to solve the national housing crisis.
"It should be a no-brainer," he said on Friday.
Acting Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said Labor's latest move on the housing bill showed arrogance.
"The policy does not stack up and meanwhile their economy-wrecking approach is making it more and more expensive to build a home," she said.
"What we need now is an urgent plan to tackle inflation, not threats about an early election."
Why could it make Australians go to the polls early, and what are the chances?
The resurrected bill could serve as a double dissolution trigger if it's rejected a second time, allowing the government to call an early election.
This would mean the House of Representatives and the entire Senate is dissolved — meaning all the positions in the chambers are up for election.
The last time a double dissolution election was called was in 2016 under then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Australians are next set to vote at a federal level in 2025. If the bill is rejected again, Albanese said on Friday there wouldn't be an election this year.
"We’re determined to get this legislation passed. We want it to be passed."
