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Minister of Housing Clare O’Neil MP has announced that the Albanese government has reintroduced the Help to Buy bills into Parliament on 8 October after it failed to bring a vote on the legislation in mid-September.
Under the scheme, 40,000 people over four years would be supported into home ownership, with the government committing 40 per cent towards the purchase price of a new home and 30 per cent towards an existing home, with price caps in place depending on the property’s location.
Additionally, home buyers would only require a minimum 2 per cent deposit to participate in the scheme, with lower ongoing repayments while they participate.
The statement released by Minister O’Neil said that the government is giving the Parliament “one last chance to make this scheme a reality”.
“We know how difficult it is saving up for your first home. Help to Buy means a smaller deposit to help low- and middle-income Australians get on the housing ladder sooner,” Minister O’Neil said.
“Australians expect politicians to stop talking and just get on with delivering solutions and that’s what this legislation is about – putting home ownership back in reach for 40,000 low and middle income Australians.
“The Coalition and the Greens are putting politics ahead of progress. Labor wants to make real progress on home ownership for thousands of people struggling to get into their own home.”
Ongoing feud with the Australian Greens
The Help to Buy bill was delayed by two months after the Australian Greens leader Adam Bandt announced that the party would delay the bill in a move that was backed by the Coalition a day after.
According to Bandt, the party is seeking significant changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount, as well as rental freezes to obtain his colleague’s Senate votes.
Upon the reintroduction of Help to Buy, Greens Minister for Griffith, Max Chandler-Mather, hit out against Labor’s scheme in an Instagram post, saying that registered nurses, teachers, and paramedics do not qualify for the scheme as “individuals must earn under $90,000 to be eligible”.
Minister Chandler-Mather’s post also said that childcare workers would not be able to afford repayments and would face “severe mortgage stress”.
Minister O’Neil, however, refuted these claims, saying that is “embarrassing” for the Greens to represent nurse and teacher earnings “radically more than many of them are earning”.
”There are plenty of early career nurses and teachers who are waking up this morning who would be thrilled to be paid the Greens are saying they would be paid,” Minister O’Neil said during an interview with Thomas Oriti on ABC NewsRadio on 8 October.
Minister Chandler-Mather also accused Labor of offering “nothing” in negotiations regarding housing policy during Question Time on this same day.
“To the Prime Minister, the Greens will work with Labor to cut rents, phase out negative gearing and the capital gains discount and invest the savings in a mass build of public housing,” Minister Chandler-Mather said.
“We don’t expect to get everything. We are ready to negotiate but you have offered nothing.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded to the member for Griffith: “… We won’t be doing measures which aren’t part of our policy and in the case of Help to Buy, all we’re asking for is the Greens political party to vote for something that was their policy.
“Some of the proposals that he [Chandler-Mather] just went through … including the idea that the Commonwealth is in a position to freeze rents … it simply can’t be done, it’s not within the Commonwealth’s power.”
[RELATED: Help to Buy vote delayed]
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