AUSTRALIANS who fit the bill may have a pathway to home ownership sooner as the Labor government looks to have snared the support it needs to pass its shared-equity scheme.
After months of deadlock, the Greens have promised to support the Help to Buy bill as well as the build-to-rent legislation – clearing the way to enshrine key pieces of the Federal Government’s housing agenda.
Both housing bills failed to attract opposition support.
The Greens held out for months in the hope Labor would do more to support renters and improve housing affordability, calling for changes to property investor tax concessions and caps on rent rises.
Housing Minister Clare O’Neil would not speak for other Senate crossbenchers but said the changes “have now got a really clear passage through the parliament”.
“I’m glad (the Greens) have finally seen the light,” she told reporters
“But it doesn’t excuse the fact that they have played politics on housing for two-and-a-half years, and the net effect of the Greens in this term of parliament is to delay action on housing.”
Greens leader Adam Bandt confirmed his party’s support for both bills on Monday but said the government had missed a “golden opportunity” to tackle the big drivers of the housing crisis.
“The issue needs to be fixed,” Mr Bandt told reporters in Canberra.
“Otherwise whole generations are never going to be able to own their own home, and renters are going to be pushed to breaking point.”
Mr Bandt said his party had pushed as hard as possible to implement caps on rent increases and phase out tax concessions for property investors.
“There comes a point where you’ve pushed as far as you can,” Mr Bandt said.
While unable to extract rent caps or other major concessions, the minor party was able to secure an extra $3 billion of investment for social housing in negotiations for the Housing Australia Future Fund.
