Prime Minister Anthony Albanese steps up struggle with Greens over housing disaster | USAEMALL.com

Anthony Albanese has upped the ante in his ongoing fight with the Greens to get legislation passed through the Senate, saying the minor party does not appear to understand his housing plan otherwise it would back it in.

The Prime Minister and Housing Minister Clare O’Neil announced the first release of money from the Government’s signature Housing Australia Future Fund and deal with the States and Territories on Monday, which is expected to cover the construction of more than 13,700 social and affordable homes.

Construction of about 5500 of these is expected to begin by June 2025.

But Mr Albanese said had the Greens and Coalition not held up passage of the HAFF legislation, people could already be moving into new homes and today’s announcement could have been for the second rebound of funding.

The Government is gearing up for another fight over its shared equity scheme, known as Help to Buy, and build to rent tax breaks for developers in the Senate this week.

“The Senate have a week where it’s just them, okay, there’s no distractions here,” Mr Albanese said.

“Can they get anything done? Can they get anything done this week? That’s the question.

“Whether it’s the Coalition or the Greens or Senator (Jacqui) Lambie, or anyone else, Senator (Pauline) Hanson — they all have that opportunity.

“But get on with it. Don’t sit back and do what they did with the Housing Australia Future Fund.

“We’re announcing 13,700 new homes today. We could have been announcing 13,700 new homes six or eight months ago had they not stood in the way of the legislation, and today we could have been announcing round two rather than round one.”