The Prime Minister says he'll continue to advocate for a key housing policy, as it heads towards failure in the Senate today. Both the Coalition and Greens remain resolutely opposed to the 'Help to Buy' scheme, and the government is unwilling to negotiate.
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00:00It seems like this bill is heading for a fairly swift end in the Senate, perhaps as soon as
00:07this afternoon, because, again, the government remains unable to convince the coalition or
00:12the Greens to get on board with its shared equity scheme.
00:15It's interesting on its own, the government is pushing this bill through the parliament
00:18knowing it is likely to fail, it seems.
00:21There's probably a little bit of politics at play in that decision.
00:25This is a shared equity scheme the government's been pitching since the last election it was
00:29an election commitment, essentially it would allow the government to buy 30 to 40 percent
00:34of your home with you.
00:35If you were buying a home, the government quite literally takes a stake, the idea being
00:39to reduce the size of the deposit needed to buy that home and the size of the mortgagory
00:44payments to service that mortgage as well, leaving open the option that you can simply
00:49buy out the government at some point down the track.
00:51There are similar schemes up and running in many states around Australia, something the
00:56government has pointed to as evidence this scheme could work.
00:59But the coalition and Greens remain opposed, arguing it's not the right solution to Australia's
01:04housing problems.
01:05They, of course, have different ideas, the coalition backing its super for housing policy.
01:10The Greens saying this isn't the right idea, but they would be willing to support it if
01:14the government considered other options to things like changes to negative gearing, capital
01:19gains tax or rent caps as well, all things the government is unwilling to negotiate on.
01:25Here's the Greens Max Chandler-Mather speaking on this issue earlier this morning.
01:30What this scheme will do is deny 99.8 percent of renters access to it every year and then
01:36drive up house prices for them by flooding the private housing market with more cash.
01:41Look, we've seen Labor and the Liberal Party peddle schemes like this again and again,
01:45whether it's the first homebuyers grant or whatever it is, they clearly don't work.
01:51The government has been unwilling to negotiate, it seems, so far with either the coalition
01:55or the Greens on this particular issue.
01:58The prime minister was asked this morning what happens if this does get voted down in
02:02the Senate?
02:03Does the government stick with this policy?
02:05Does it dump it?
02:06Does it change it in some way?
02:07He says they will continue to make the case, arguing this legislation is good legislation
02:12that deserves to go through.
02:14We will continue to advocate for this.
02:18The Greens and the Liberals and the Nationals have to decide whether they are just blockers
02:24or whether they're looking for a solution.
02:27And we're at the stage in the political cycle, after two and a half years, where increasingly
02:35it would appear that the coalition and the Greens are teaming up together to block things
02:43that are just common sense reforms, that if you ask them in isolation, is this a good
02:49reform or not, they will answer yes.
02:51Well, if it's good reform, they should vote for it.
02:55Interestingly, this bill does have some support in the parliament, particularly from some
03:00independent MPs.
03:02Independent Senator David Pocock has spoken in favour of it, as have some of the Teal
03:06independent MPs in the lower house who have also advocated for this policy and asked the
03:11Greens and coalition to get behind it.
03:13Of course, that support won't be enough to really help out the government in the parliament.
03:17The arithmetic just isn't there.
03:19The Prime Minister was also asked about the possibility of using this to trigger a double
03:23dissolution election, which is a terrifying prospect for political reporters.
03:28That seems extremely unlikely, despite the fact the Prime Minister kept that door open.
03:32Given the timing, it just doesn't quite work out, given we're close enough to an election
03:36already.