Australians will be promised thousands of new homes under a surprise federal move to spend $2 billion in the next two weeks to fund new work by the states while escalating a political clash on the housing crisis.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese struck a deal with state and territory leaders on Friday afternoon to transfer the cash by June 30 on condition they build or refurbish social housing and press ahead with broader reforms to planning laws.
But the new $2 billion policy, to be called the Social Housing Accelerator, is not tied to any talks with the Greens and will go ahead immediately while Labor waits for Bandt and his colleagues to agree to pass the bill to set up the Housing Australia Future Fund.“We are not negotiating with student politicians,” said one Labor insider familiar with the new policy.
The states and territories must spend the money in the next two years and the $2 billion will be divided on a per-capita basis between each jurisdiction, with a minimum of $50 million each for the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. The federal government estimates the proportion of social housing has fallen from 4.7 per cent to 4.2 per cent of all households over the past decade, with the prime minister using his speech to say the demand for social housing has increased almost three times as fast as the growth in population.
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