It's time for some facts about Labor's Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF). Firstly, it's important to note the Greens have been fighting to improve Labor's HAFF, and ensure it actually starts to tackle the scale of the housing crisis. As a result of holding firm, the Greens have secured $2 billion of immediate investment in social housing, that until recently Labor refused to even consider. This funding will now be released and spent immediately as a direct result of our work.
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However Labor's HAFF still does nothing for renters, which is a major sticking point for the Greens. The Senate voted to defer the vote on the HAFF for a few months because we need to keep negotiating to pass a bill that will actually start to tackle rising rents. The Greens are asking Labor to come to the table and work together on a plan that actually does this. National Cabinet will consider rental laws when it meets in October, so we've said we will consider the HAFF again after that. Despite Labor's spin, this won't delay homes being built, as the bill doesn't actually guarantee any money being until 2024/25.
In the meantime, the pressure is on Labor - which holds every National Cabinet seat on the mainland - to act on the rental crisis. Unlimited rentrises should be illegal. The Greens are fighting so hard to limit rent increases because unless we stop rents skyrocketing, no matter how much housing we build, the queues for public housing will blow out and our chances of tackling this crisis will drop to zero. I think it's important to put all this in context. The current shortage of social and affordable housing in Australia is 640,000 homes and that is due to grow by 75,000 homes in the next five years. Yet Labor's entire plan, at best, will build 30,000 social and affordable homes over five years. If Labor's bill had passed through parliament in its current form, without locking in greater investment every year and national limits on rent increases, millions of people would have been left behind and things would have become much worse.
Labor MPs and Senators should bring a plan to National Cabinet for renters and lock in $2 billion of social housing funding every year so that this bill can pass. That's what the Greens want, and we're going to do everything we can to deliver it.
Senator Peter Whish-Wilson is the Australian Greens Senator for lutruwita/Tasmania
