Greens issues demands to new minister

Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather has written to the newly installed Housing Minister Clare O’Neil urging her to consider key reforms like phasing out capital gains tax benefits for investors and negative gearing, or risk losing support from the minor party over two crucial bills.

In a letter sent to Ms O’Neil’s office on Thursday, the minor party said struggling renters and mortgage payers were sick of “spin and platitude,” and demanded immediate policies which would moderate house prices.

He added that current messaging around housing targets and reform were not addressing the current and immediate problem.

Scrapping negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount for investor-owners topped Ms Chandler-Mather’s list of demands, which he described as “unfair tax handouts to property investors” which were “turbo charging house prices and making it harder than ever for renters to buy their first home”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has so far rejected further reform on both tax benefits.

He also called for a two-year freeze on rent increases, plus ongoing cap on rent increases to be implemented through National Cabinet, plus a commitment to build 710,000 over 10 years which would be rented to low-income earners, or sold just slightly above build-costs.

“The Albanese Government’s plan to rely on property developers and the private market has

obviously failed,” the letter read.

“Indeed housing construction has reached a record low entirely because developers have decided it is not profitable to build right now.

“All the Greens are proposing is the government plays a more substantial role in the provision of something as essential as housing.”

The letter comes as the government requires the Greens support to pass its Help to Buy and Build to Rent bills, both of which do not have Coalition support and are currently before the Senate.

Announced at the 2022 election, the Help to Buy co-ownership scheme aims to allow up to 40,000 buyers to purchase a home with just a 2 per cent deposit, with the government footing up to 40 per cent of the purchase price of a new home, or 30 per cent for an existing home.

However the Mr Chandler-Mather said the party was “deeply concerned” it would “actively accelerate rising house prices,” and would only be accessible to 0.2 per cent of renters each year.

“(We) will not vote for this piece of legislation in its current form without additional action to put downward pressure on house prices,” he wrote.

The Greens have also flagged concerns the tax concessions for developers through the Build to Rent scheme would not put downward pressure on prices.

It says its support would be dependent on a guarantee that home built under the scheme would be affordable for people on low and middle incomes.

Appearing on ABC on Monday, shortly after she was sworn into her new portfolio, Ms O’Neil sidestepped questions on whether the government would consider amending or removing current provisions around negative gearing or capital gains tax for investors.

Asked whether she had been given the new role to ensure Labor could better work with the Greens to pass policy she said her only priority was to “try to make a difference to the lives of Australians”.

“I’ll be thinking of the parents who have got kids in local schools who are worried desperately about being moved out of their property and having to move and uproot their entire family because they don’t have housing stability.”