Australians needing affordable housing will have to keep waiting for solutions as the federal government and Greens trade barbs over their approaches to the crisis.
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accused the minor party of opposing a signature housing policy in order to boost social media followers and provide fodder for memes.
But Greens leader Adam Bandt shot back by suggesting the Labor government "did not have the ticker" to fix the housing emergency.
At a national cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Mr Albanese, premiers and chief ministers agreed to rental market reforms, including limiting rent increases to once a year and creating minimum rental standards.
A nationwide policy will be developed requiring landlords to provide genuine, reasonable grounds for evictions.
The prime minister also offered a multibillion-dollar incentive to build new dwellings, announcing the construction of 1.2 million homes in the next five years, an increase of 200,000 dwellings from a previous target.
States and territories will be offered $15,000 for each new home they build from $3 billion in federal funding for 200,000 new dwellings.
Mr Albanese on Thursday set a 2024 start date for a scheme to help 40,000 low-income families buy a home.
He said Greens politicians were "blockers" while Labor were "the builders".
"The Greens political party aren't interested in solving the problem at all, they just want the issue, the campaign, the social media content," he told a gathering of Labor faithful at the party's national conference in Brisbane.
"They revel in the hypocrisy of voting against affordable housing in the parliament, protesting against it in their electorate and then making memes calling for action."
The Greens have previously opposed the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund and delayed debate on the bill until October, arguing a lack of support for renters.
Mr Bandt recommitted his party to a fight for tenants, saying they had been left behind by national cabinet.
"Under the announcements from Labor, rents are going to keep going up, housing is going to get more expensive and the housing crisis will get worse," he said.
Mr Bandt said the Greens had bent over backwards to negotiate with the government and secure a better deal for more Australians.
"We are in a fight to push Labor to deliver for renters and we are not going to stop," he said.
He also criticised the decision not to stop unlimited rent rises altogether, saying an increase once a year could still crush renters.
But Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said a Greens' push to freeze and cap rents would reduce supply and further prolong the crisis.
"Don't make it worse by being a populist," he said.
"People will not build housing in a jurisdiction where potentially rents are frozen.
"They will go to another part of Australia where they are not frozen and they will build their apartments and their houses there."
Federal opposition leader Peter Dutton questioned whether the government would be able to deliver a promised housing supply increase.
"The trouble is that figures don't mean anything under this prime minister," he said.
"As we've seen in relation to other issues, he just doesn't get across the detail, he makes the announcement but there's no delivery."
Independent MP Dai Le said despite all the talk, she didn't know whether there would ever be extra houses built.
"We know the problem and we just need a solution," she said.
Australian Associated Press
