Aussies not happy with delays on key bills

The Greens and Coalition could be stalling major government housing legislation at their own peril, a new poll suggests.

Both the Albanese government Help to Buy and Build to Rent bills failed to get through the senate last week, with the Coalition firmly against the legislation and the Greens saying the bills do not go far enough.

The hold up has frustrated Anthony Albanese and his federal cabinet, but blocking key pillars of the government’s plan to tackle soaring housing prices across the country could be backfiring.

According to the latest Guardian Essential poll, twice the number of voters back parliament passing both bills than want them knocked back.

The poll, which surveyed 1117 voters, found 48 per cent thought the Greens and Coalition should pass the bills and make the case for their own policies at the federal election next year,

with just 22 per cent explicitly support blocking them.

The results showed 55 per cent of the self-declared Greens voters wanted the laws to pass, while 37 per cent of Coalition voters backed passing the bills.

The Help to Buy Bill, which would let first-home buyers purchase a property under a shared equity scheme with the government, was delayed to November.

The government last week also failed to get its Build to Rent Bill to vote.

It aims to incentivise the construction of rent-only developments through tax concessions.

The opposition, which has not yet announced its own housing policy, has ruled out supporting the bills, forcing Labor to look to the Greens.

The Greens have demanded action on rent freezes and caps, an end to tax concessions for property developers, and a government-owned property developer that would build homes to sell at just above the cost of construction.

But the Prime Minister has said they should try to get amendments through the upper house rather than throw the baby out with the bath water.

“The way that parliament works is we’ve had legislation pass the House of Representatives that goes to the senate,” he told reporters on Monday.

“You think the legislation can be improved, you move amendments, and you see whether they receive support or not in order to get the legislation through.”

He said the Greens were showing a “pattern of behaviour” that was aiding the Coalition.

Mr Albanese’s remarks came after the Greens earlier demanded the government force the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates in return for their support of major reforms to the independent central bank.

The Prime Minister’s frustration was put clearly on display last week when he left the door open to a double-dissolution election, a major move that could drastically reshape the upper house.

More to come.