A quick victory lap

Greens settle for a partial victory on housing

Good news on Australian politics is pretty rare these days. But I wholeheartedly approve of the deal the Greens have made with Labor to pass the Housing Affordability Future Fund Bill. In the time since the Senate rejected the first version of the Bill, Labor has made some changes, and, more importantly, found billions of dollars more for housing.

As a result, I’ve been saying that the Greens should take well-deserved credit for this, and pass the Bill, while continuing the fight to protect renters. I made a less partisna version of this argument in my submission to the Senate inquiry on the bill which is now public

Whether the Greens were influenced by my advocacy, or just did the sensible thing, this is a good outcome. As Adam Bandt says on this point, pressure works

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My Submission to the Senate Inquiry

1. The HAFF bills should be passed

I have previously submitted an assessment of the Housing Australia Future Fund proposal (appended). My view that the the proposal is an unnecessarily complicated and non-transparent way of funding a relatively small amount of expenditure on social housing remains unchanged.

Nevertheless, I urge the Committee to support the passage of this legislation for the following reasons

* The offer of a guaranteed minimum expenditure of $500 million removes the biggest objection to the funding mechanism, namely that available funds would be limited by the returns on investments

* Additional announcements made by the Commonwealth Government and National Cabinet have greatly increased total public spending commitments for housing. In this context, the HAFF proposal, while inadequate in itself, can be seen as one contribution to a larger program

* Although I have no special expertise in making political judgements, it seems unlikely that further delay will lead to significant improvements in the bill, and there is some risk that the spending proposed will not be undertaken.

I therefore urge the Committee to support passage of the legislation.