The Greens’ housing spokesman,Max Chandler-Mather,says Housing Minister Clare O’Neil now oversees one of the most expensive and overheated housing and rental markets in the world.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
At the centre of the debate are two of Labor’s signature policies – a Help to Buy program under which the federal government would contribute up to 40 per cent of the purchase price of a new home and a Build to Rent scheme designed to encourage investment in the construction of new apartments.
The Greens voted against Help to Buy in the lower house in February,while they have demanded changes to Build to Rent and reserved their position while it is before a Senate inquiry.
Labor has argued that the$32 billion for housing it has promisedto help build 1.2 million new dwellings under its Homes for Australia plan is a record funding commitment from the Commonwealth.
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But Chandler-Mather’s criticism of Labor’s program contributed to the decision by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to move former minister Julie Collins,who was seen as ineffectual,to agriculture and replace her with O’Neil before a federal election in which housing affordability will be a decisive factor.
In a letter to the incoming minister shared with this masthead,Chandler-Mather argued that O’Neil now oversaw one of the most expensive and overheated housing and rental markets in the world and that “all the Albanese Labor government has done is tinker around the edges”.
“Over the next 10 years,the federal government will give $175 billion in tax handouts to property investors through negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount,” the Greens’ housing spokesman wrote.