Anthony Albanese should invest in social housing rather than telling his own story about growing up in such accommodation, according to a Greens MP.
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Max Chandler-Mather, the Greens' housing spokesperson, said Labor's $10 billion housing fund would make the crisis worse and would grow the social and affordable housing shortage.
The fund passed the lower house on Wednesday night but will need the Greens' backing to get through the Senate, with the coalition opposing the bill.
The Greens abstained from voting in the lower house and haven't announced a position for the Senate, suggesting the government address their concerns or risk them opposing it.
"It's their way or the highway apparently, and their way sees the housing crisis get worse," Mr Chandler-Mathers told reporters.
"We want the government to come to the table and actually negotiate in good faith and recognise ... there are millions of renters and low-income households out there who voted for the Greens and expect us to stand up for them."
An annual $5 billion investment in social and affordable housing, a rent increase freeze, doubling the Commonwealth rent assistance and at least $1 billion extra investment in First Nations housing are on the Greens' shopping list.
Mr Chandler-Mather said the government's own housing body had reported the need for nearly 900,000 extra social and affordable homes in the next 20 years, representing $15 billion investment annually.
"The PM displayed a spectacular ignorance of the housing situation ... it was genuinely shocking to hear the prime minister not nearly across any basic detail," he said.
"If he wants to wax lyrical about growing up in public housing, then he should have to explain to the 640,000 people this bill leaves behind what they're going to do, where are they going to go?"
Labor MP Anika Wells lashed the Greens for not voting on an issue "they claim to care about".
"It's hard to be smug, weak, and wrong all at the same time, but the Greens MPs managed it when they scuttled out of the chamber," she told Nine's Today program.
"This was a key issue at the election, the housing crisis ... this is the government delivering on its promise."
Treasurer Jim Chalmers blamed the coalition's continual opposition to its bills for "dealing the Greens into the game".
"When it comes to the various pieces of legislation before the parliament, what the coalition's pig-headed approach has done is it has dealt the Greens into the game," he told reporters.
"The obstructionism we see from the opposition makes the Greens relevant."
Australian Associated Press
