Left vs. Left: Labor PM Says Greens Stonewalling Housing Fund for Political Gain

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on March 30, 2023. Martin Ollman/Getty Images

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has lambasted the Australian Greens for taking a hardline stance on the Housing Affordability Future Fund (HAFF), which could result in a potential double dissolution showdown.

“For the Greens political party, this isn’t about the Australian people. This is about them. They want the issue, not the outcome. They deal in protests; we focus on progress,” the prime minister told Parliament on June 21.

Albanese cited an article by the Greens’ housing spokesperson and MP for the Brisbane seat of Griffith, Max Chandler-Mather, in the Jacobin, a left-wing American socialist journal, while accusing the minor party of trying to gain political traction.

“You don’t have to think that that’s the case because the member for Griffith has carefully and clearly said the quiet bit in an article that’s been written in the Jacobin magazine. He wrote: ”This parliamentary conflict helps create the space for a broader campaign in civil society.”

Albanese said the Greens opposed HAFF because it could demobilise a potential voter base.

“Allowing the HAFF to pass would demobilise the growing section of civil society that is justifiably angry about the degree of poverty and financial stress that exists in such a wealthy country,” Chandler-Mather wrote. 

The Epoch Times has reached out to Chandler-Mather’s office for comment.

The HAFF bill was a core election promise of the federal government and from Prime Minister Albanese, who himself grew up in social housing.

Under the plan, the Australian federal government would create a $10 billion fund (US$6.7 billion) to address the lack of social and affordable housing across the country, with the government hoping the legislation could help build at least 30,000 homes over five years.

The fund would also exist in perpetuity, and each year, the government would use its returns to invest in housing across the country with the federal government guaranteeing a minimum $500 million per year would be used to build new housing.

Delay Costing Australians More Than a Million Per Day: PM

The delay in passing the HAFF bill is costing Australians $1.3 million per day, according to the prime minister who cited the fund’s potential earnings on June 20.

“I say to the Greens political party: there are more people involved in this than you,” Albanese said. 

“Understand who you are saying ‘no’ to. You’re saying no to people who are at risk of homelessness, who are veterans. You’re saying no to women and children escaping domestic violence.

“You’re saying no to Indigenous Australians in remote communities. And you are saying no to those housing groups who stood up before this vote in the Senate yesterday, calling for the HAFF to pass.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt has said its hardline stance has forced the government to provide a further $2 billion for social housing and to make other concessions on the bill.

“And just like Labor changed their mind on spending for housing, we want Labor to take the rental crisis seriously,” Bandt said.

Housing Advocates Want Bill Passed

But housing advocates have called on the Greens to pass the bill.

Homelessness Australia CEO Kate Colvin called the situation in Australia a “catastrophe.”

“We need the housing that will be created by the housing legislation to get going,” she said.

While the Property Council of Australia CEO Mike Zorbas said the housing bill needed to be passed as soon as possible.

“I urge all senators who haven’t yet made up their mind to really seriously think about the opportunity that is presented to them,” he said