Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I think it's important I put some facts on the record about how we find ourselves here this evening. Nine months ago, when Labor's signature housing bill was first introduced, it was nothing more than a $10 billion gamble on the stock market. There wasn't a single dollar of guaranteed investment in public and affordable housing in the bill and renters were invisible in the public debate. That's where we were nine months ago when Labor introduced their bill.

Since then, thanks to the Greens actually standing up to Labor and demanding that Labor be better than what they were nine months ago on housing, we've seen a guarantee of an extra $3 billion invested right now into building public and affordable housing in Australia. That's thanks to the Greens. We've also seen Labor's original policy position that there could be no more than $500 million per year disbursed out of the Housing Australia Future Fund changed from a maximum of $500 million to a minimum of $500 million, so instead of no more than $500 million per year able to be disbursed now at least $500 million a year is able to be disbursed from the Housing Australia Future Fund.

That's what you get when the Greens, with the balance of power in the Senate, are prepared to stand up and demand that the Labor Party do better. All the while the Labor Party said that they couldn't do any better. They said that there was no money available for direct investment into social, affordable and public housing in Australia. They said, 'It all has to go through the HAFF, and there'll be no disbursements from the HAFF until the 2024-25 financial year.' That was Labor's position at the start of this debate nine months ago. Well, how things have changed! They've changed because the Greens were prepared to stand up. What that should say to everyone in this chamber, and what I have no doubt it says to a lot of people in Australia, is that pressure works. I know why people put the Greens into this place: because they know we will stand up and demand better and they know that we won't sell ourselves cheaply.

Speaking about selling yourselves cheaply, I've had some pretty good laughs over the past 24 hours listening to some of the contributions in this place and some of the media and social media contributions, particularly from two senators from my home state of Tasmania: Senator Lambie and Senator Tyrrell. Let's not forget Senator Lambie and Senator Tyrrell have spent months parroting Labor Party speaking points against the Greens. They've come up with the dumbest, stupidest internet memes about the Tasmanian Greens senators—me and Senator Whish-Wilson—that you would ever want to see, and they have spent months deceiving Australians, or trying to deceive Australians, into believing that the Greens' refusal to pass this legislation over the last few months has in some way delayed houses from being built. That is an absolute untruth, because, if you look at the public comments from Minister Collins, at the legislation and at the explanatory memorandum, you will see there would have been no disbursements from this fund until the 2024-25 financial year, which is still eight or nine months away as we stand here tonight. So the only thing the Greens have delayed is the passage of the legislation. We have not delayed the building of a single new home anywhere around Australia. What we have done, despite being told by Senator Lambie, Senator Tyrrell, Prime Minister Albanese, Minister Collins, serried ranks of Labor senators and the vast majority of media pundits that it couldn't be done, is to deliver an extra $3 billion into public and affordable housing in Australia and turn a $500 million annual cap into a $500 million annual floor. We have turned it from, 'You can't spend any more than $500 million,' into, 'You have to spend more than $500 million in every year from the HAFF.'

Why did we do this? Well, there is a fundamental difference between how the Greens view housing and how the Labor and Liberal parties view housing. Minister Collins, two or three months ago on 7.30, said the quiet thing out loud. She said, 'Labor wants housing to be an investment and asset class in Australia.' Just have a think about that for a minute, colleagues. This is the Minister for Housing saying that Labor wants housing to be an investment and asset class in Australia. There's the difference right there between the Labor Party and the Greens, because the Greens see housing as a place for people to make a home. That's what the Greens see housing as. Labor, as confirmed by the Minister for Housing, sees housing as an investment and asset class in Australia, and it is exactly because the major parties in this place see housing as an investment and asset class that we are in the mess we're in today, where people cannot afford to pay their mortgage or cannot afford the rent rise after rent rise after rent rise that they are facing from unscrupulous landlords who simply see housing as an investment and asset class and who forget that houses are a place where Australians make a home for themselves and for their families and friends. That's the fundamental difference here between the Greens and everyone else. It's why we stood up on this and it's why we've delivered those three billion extra dollars.

So I say to Senator Lambie and Senator Tyrrell, I say to the Labor Party, I say to the LNP opposition and I say to all the media and political pundits around the country who said that we should simply roll over and pass Labor's package unamended: there are three billion reasons why you were wrong. Pressure works, and you will never see a better example of that than this evening.

I also have to laugh, or chuckle, at some of the responses from Labor ministers to dorothy dixers asked by Labor senators in question time today. Who would have known that a whole bunch of Labor ministers have suddenly developed a soft spot for renters? You could have knocked me over with a feather when Senator Wong and Senator Farrell were all hand on heart empathising with how tough renters are doing. Why were they doing that? Because renters have found their voice in this country. The one-third of Australians who rent have found their voice. Do you know what else they've found? They've found a party that is prepared to represent them, a party that is prepared to stand up for them. That party is the Australian Greens. We are here to represent renters, and we're putting Labor on notice that we're not going to stop demanding that Labor do more for renters. We're not going to stop until there are rent controls in this country. We're not going to stop until unlimited rent rises are unlawful in Australia, because houses are a place where people make a home.

Whether you own your own home, you're paying it off or you rent, the house that you live in is the place that you make a home in. We respect that. That's why we are saying that Labor has to do more about corporate profiteering, which is driving up inflation, which is forcing the RBA to put up interest rates, making paying off a mortgage more and more unaffordable for more and more Australians. It's why we are saying that Labor should use the existing powers in the Reserve Bank Act to override the RBA when it goes on its flawed mission of a record series of interest rate rises in Australia, because ultimately in a democracy the power should reside in the hands of those who are accountable to the people, and that is all of us in this place.

Labor has to do more for mortgage holders. Labor certainly has to do more for renters. I've listened again to the excuses that have been ruled by Labor senators: 'Rents are a state and territory issue.' Here is news for Labor. Every state and territory government bar one is actually a Labor government at the moment. Every mainland state and territory is governed by Labor. They are in the same political party as you people. The governments of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia are in your political party. Don't come in here and try to convince us that you can't convince them to act. What a load of rubbish. With any luck, as soon as people in my and Senator Brown's home state of Tasmania get a chance to go to the polls, that will be the end of the last Tory government in the country. Will it make any difference to this? No, because there is no political will in the Labor Party in Canberra to do anything meaningful for renters. That's the problem we are facing here—a lack of political will to do anything for renters.

So Labor's on notice. There are more bills coming down the line in this space, in this parliament, and Labor shouldn't take our support on those bills for granted, because we're putting Labor on notice: stump up and do something for renters. Stump up and put in place some rent caps or a freeze on rent increases. Make unlimited rent rises unlawful. Do something for renters and stop being the party of property speculators and investors. That's what the Labor Party has become. It's almost as if we're dealing with the Australian landlords party rather than the Australian Labor Party.

It's time that renters had a fair go in this place. If there's one great thing that's happened in this debate, it's that renters have found their voice, and they've understood that, if they organise and come together, they are a powerful, powerful political force. They've also come to understand that their votes are powerful. Further, they've understood that the Labor Party has abandoned them—absolutely abandoned renters to the market. There are double-digit rent increases going on right around the country. There are renters getting notices of rent increases of double digits multiple times a year. No wonder homelessness is a growing problem in this country. My home state of Tasmania has the fastest rate of increase in homelessness in the country. In Tasmania, we are at the epicentre of the housing and rental crisis in Australia, yet there are Tasmanian government senators who think it's fine to do nothing for renters.

We are here, unashamedly, as the party of renters. We hear their concerns and we are here to give voice to and act on their concerns. We're proud to have delivered what we have through standing up and demanding that Labor be better: an extra $3 billion available immediately to build public and affordable homes in Australia, and turning a $500 million annual disbursement from a maximum to a minimum. But the job isn't over yet, and there's a long, long way to go before renters have real justice in Australia.