Greens stick with two-year rent freeze but give ground on earlier housing demands   :)

Rents are soaring across Australia as would-be tenants continue to outnumber available properties.

June 4 2023
New Daily

A two-year rent freeze will be key to the Greens’ support for the government’s housing plan as the minor party scales back their previous demands.   :) 

Greens leader Adam Bandt revealed his party would back the government’s Housing Australia Future Fund legislation, in exchange for a commitment to tackle immediate rental stress and a $2.5 billion per year allocation to purchase existing properties for social housing.

The new demands are similar to the Greens’ original position but come at roughly half the cost to the government.

Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather said millions of Australians were falling into rental stress and rent freezes in other countries had an impact on reducing rents.

Worsening crisis   :(
“This is one of the worst housing crisis in this country’s history and if (the government) can find $30b a year for the stage three tax cuts … why can’t they find $2.5b dollars for public and affordable housing and $1b for a freeze on rent increases,” he told ABC Insiders   :(.

The government’s proposed $10b future fund aims to build 30,000 new social and affordable properties in the first five years of its existence and deliver returns to back further social housing projects.

But Mr Chandler-Mather said the proposal gambled on the stock market with no guarantee of producing any money to invest in affordable housing.

He said he would not be able to look people in his electorate in the eye if he voted for a plan that would make the housing crisis worse.

‘That is not a response’
“The shortage right now is 640,000 social and affordable homes and that is going to increase by 75,000 homes (but) the government has said they can build up to 30,000 homes over the next five years,” he said.

“That is not a response to the housing crisis.”

New demands for passing the bill include that government offers states and territories an additional incentive of $1b a year in return for imposing a two-year freeze on rent increases, ongoing rent caps and improved renters’ rights.

Previously the party was demanding a $1.6b incentive fund for states and territories to ease rental stress.

Secondly, to pass the legislation, the Greens are asking the government to commit $2.5b every year to purchase expiring social housing, off-the-plan homes or otherwise vacant unused properties to add to existing stock.

The sum is half of what the Greens had originally proposed.

Mr Chandler-Mather said his party was willing to negotiate but was adamant government should not leave renters behind.

-AAP

Are the greens going to also put a freeze on council rates, mortgage repayments,  insurance premiums,  repair costs?

whiteknight wrote on Jun 4^th, 2023 at 11:43am:

Greens stick with two-year rent freeze but give ground on earlier housing demands   :)

With Lambie saying '"let's get the job done" (re Labor's housing proposal),  the Greens have little choice but to change tack.

Lambie of course has grown up in the neoliberal era, and has no knowledge of how liberal PM Menzies funded a sizable public housing sector in Oz - via  Keynesian deficit spending.

And Labor are rusted-on neoliberals these days, despite Wayne Swan's assertions to the contrary.

Hence their insane housing fund relying on the stock- market casino.

I'm trying to get the Greens to face head on the erroneous 'balanced government budget' narrative of the current mainstrem economic orthodoxy, to show the public why the Oz government CAN afford to fund a sizable public housing stock, once again.

And in the meantime, guarantee financial support for state treasurers wanting to subsidize rents.

The Greens have been overrun by morons.

Will Shoebridge drop the rent on the terrace he bought in Everliegh after the Abos living there were kicked out?

freediver wrote on Jun 4^th, 2023 at 1:35pm:

The Greens have been overrun by morons.

er that's not debate; but we wouldn't want to see you expose your greedy conservative ideology, would we?

thegreatdivide wrote on Jun 4^th, 2023 at 2:17pm:

freediver wrote on Jun 4th, 2023 at 1:35pm: The Greens have been overrun by morons. er that's not debate; but we wouldn't want to see you expose your greedy conservative ideology, would we?

Overseas experience shows that rent control tends to actually harm the people they are intended to help.

Government rejects Greens olive branch, but where to on housing?   :(



June 4 2023
New Daily

The government has rejected the offer of a compromise with the Greens on housing policy, after the party extended an olive branch on Sunday seeking a deal against the backdrop of a mounting shortfall of affordable homes.

A $500 million-a-year housing future fund is stalled in the Senate amid a political stoush with the Greens, who say there is not enough money on the table and are calling for additional market intervention.

The continuing political impasse with the Greens, who hold key balance-of-power votes in the Senate needed to pass the bill, could spell more inaction on a shortage that only threatens to worsen without a political change.

“The Greens have shifted, and now we’d like Labor to,” said housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather on Sunday.

The party has halved the amount it wants the government to commit to acquiring homes for dedicated use as social and affordable housing to $2.5 billion.

It wants another $1 billion to be spent co-ordinating a national freeze on rent increases for two years and a cap on rent rises brought in after that.


Max Chandler-Mather says the Greens have shifted – now it’s Labor’s turn.
But Housing Minister Julie Collins said that Australia desperately needed the additional 30,000 homes promised by the fund over the next five years, which the Greens’ demands would sink.

“What we don’t need are proposals that won’t work, are not backed by evidence and would only make our housing challenges worse,” Ms Collins said.

Under the Greens’ proposal, the fund would purchase expiring social housing, off-the-plan homes or otherwise vacant unused properties to add to the existing social and affordable housing stock.

Mr Chandler-Mather said the promise of an additional 30,000 homes was inadequate when measured against the scale of the current shortfall of affordable housing.   :(

“That is not a response to the housing crisis,” he said.   :( 

The fund would invest the returns on the investment of a total of $10 billion in assets overseen by the Future Fund, which the Greens have claimed amounts to a “gamble”.   :(

A similar housing future fund proposed by the Grattan Institute, an independent public policy think tank, advocated a $20 billion capital investment.

“If we saw the fund increase by that size, over the next five years, we would see 60,000 dwellings being constructed,” its director of economic policy Brendan Coates told Parliament in March.

“That would be enough to reverse the decline in social housing as a share of the total housing stock.”

The think tank’s research has found that Australia is one of only three nations worldwide in which the housing supply per person has decreased over three decades.

The Coalition and the Greens both oppose the proposal in its current form, setting up a showdown when it comes before the upper house again later this month.

The shortage of private dwellings affordable to low-income renters grew from 48,000 in 1996 to 212,000 in 2016, UNSW research has found.

The average Australian household has grown slightly smaller in recent years, an incremental change recorded across two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and changing habits relating to working from home.

That amounts to additional demand for an extra 2750,000 homes a year, research by the RBA reflecting market changes between 2020 and 2022 has found.

The last Census also increased the number of single-person households being formed, which has been attributed to the dissolution of relationships, not just share houses, under the pressures of the pandemic.

Liberal leader Peter Dutton has been campaigning against a future increase in immigration – which is rebounding after a recent pandemic interruption – saying it will exacerbate a housing shortfall.

Whatever the cause, the number of new residential dwellings has not kept pace.

They are increasing only to about 198,000 annually, including unoccupied dwellings like investment properties.

Grattan research has found that the government appears to be on track to fall short of its election promise to deliver one million new homes over the next five years.

To realise that target, states such as New South Wales would need to contribute nearly 315,000 new dwellings a year, but recent state government forecasts showed a much smaller figure of about 180,000.

Quote:

The continuing political impasse with the Greens, who hold key balance-of-power votes in the Senate needed to pass the bill, could spell more inaction on a shortage that only threatens to worsen without a political change.

So the Greens' solution to a housing shortage is to reduce the incentive to build more houses?

freediver wrote on Jun 4^th, 2023 at 3:34pm:

thegreatdivide wrote on Jun 4th, 2023 at 2:17pm: freediver wrote on Jun 4th, 2023 at 1:35pm: The Greens have been overrun by morons. er that's not debate; but we wouldn't want to see you expose your greedy conservative ideology, would we? Overseas experience shows that rent control tends to actually harm the people they are intended to help.

Funny...so you want people to sleep in their cars, in the current cost of living/rental  crisis?  [See... I can ask questions too....]

freediver wrote on Jun 5^th, 2023 at 5:51am:

Quote: The continuing political impasse with the Greens, who hold key balance-of-power votes in the Senate needed to pass the bill, could spell more inaction on a shortage that only threatens to worsen without a political change. So the Greens' solution to a housing shortage is to reduce the incentive to build more houses?

Another of your  blind, ideology-generated questions.

The Greens solution is the same as  Liberal PM Menzies' post-war solution: build more public housing funded by Keynesian deficit spending.

Labor are rusted-on "small government'/'balanced budget' Thatcherite neocons... though they are prepared to build some social housing, if their 'housing-fund' stock exchange bet pays off....

thegreatdivide wrote on Jun 5^th, 2023 at 2:06pm:

freediver wrote on Jun 4th, 2023 at 3:34pm: thegreatdivide wrote on Jun 4th, 2023 at 2:17pm: freediver wrote on Jun 4th, 2023 at 1:35pm: The Greens have been overrun by morons. er that's not debate; but we wouldn't want to see you expose your greedy conservative ideology, would we? Overseas experience shows that rent control tends to actually harm the people they are intended to help. Funny...so you want people to sleep in their cars, in the current cost of living/rental  crisis?  [See... I can ask questions too....]

No. The Greens do. And they want to be congratulated for it.

A bit like the CCP starving 50 million people to death by trying to help feed them.

whiteknight wrote on Jun 5^th, 2023 at 5:37am:

Government rejects Greens olive branch, but where to on housing?   :( June 4 2023 New Daily The government has rejected the offer of a compromise with the Greens on housing policy, after the party extended an olive branch on Sunday seeking a deal against the backdrop of a mounting shortfall of affordable homes. A $500 million-a-year housing future fund is stalled in the Senate amid a political stoush with the Greens, who say there is not enough money on the table and are calling for additional market intervention. The continuing political impasse with the Greens, who hold key balance-of-power votes in the Senate needed to pass the bill, could spell more inaction on a shortage that only threatens to worsen without a political change. “The Greens have shifted, and now we’d like Labor to,” said housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather on Sunday. The party has halved the amount it wants the government to commit to acquiring homes for dedicated use as social and affordable housing to $2.5 billion. It wants another $1 billion to be spent co-ordinating a national freeze on rent increases for two years and a cap on rent rises brought in after that.

The Grubby Greens want to spend a billion dollars of taxpayers money on freezing rent.

Baronvonrort wrote on Jun 5^th, 2023 at 8:33pm:

whiteknight wrote on Jun 5th, 2023 at 5:37am: Government rejects Greens olive branch, but where to on housing?   :( June 4 2023 New Daily The government has rejected the offer of a compromise with the Greens on housing policy, after the party extended an olive branch on Sunday seeking a deal against the backdrop of a mounting shortfall of affordable homes. A $500 million-a-year housing future fund is stalled in the Senate amid a political stoush with the Greens, who say there is not enough money on the table and are calling for additional market intervention. The continuing political impasse with the Greens, who hold key balance-of-power votes in the Senate needed to pass the bill, could spell more inaction on a shortage that only threatens to worsen without a political change. “The Greens have shifted, and now we’d like Labor to,” said housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather on Sunday. The party has halved the amount it wants the government to commit to acquiring homes for dedicated use as social and affordable housing to $2.5 billion. It wants another $1 billion to be spent co-ordinating a national freeze on rent increases for two years and a cap on rent rises brought in after that. The Grubby Greens want to spend a billion dollars of taxpayers money on freezing rent.

Because the Oz housing ponzi has pushed housing prices (rents AND mortgages) beyond the reach of ordinary workers.