The government is back with its housing bill and a face off between Labor and the Greens could trigger an early election.
Here’s what you need to know about the showdown taking place in the Senate.
Labor’s Election Promise: Housing
Housing is an election promise from Labor, and they’re trying to reintroduce their Housing Australia Future Fund.
It’s something they took to the election as a policy that will invest $10bn dollars and then spend the earnings from that investment on 30,000 affordable and social homes over the first 5 years of the fund.
Sounds pretty good right? We know housing is a massive issue gripping Australia right now and 30,000 new affordable homes is a great place to start.
But the Greens think that this proposal isn’t the best way to fix Australia’s housing crisis and this policy as it stands is actually no good. In fact, the Greens have said that it’s not even a ‘fund’, with Greens’ MP Max Chandler-Mather saying it’s more of “a $10bn gamble on the stock market.”
The bill has already been put forward in the Senate and it failed to pass, or in the eyes of the government, it was rejected rather than failed. So now, if it gets put forward and fails or gets rejected again the government can pull the trigger for a double dissolution.
What Is a Double Dissolution And Why Would It Cause An Early Election?
A double dissolution happens when the Senate refuses to pass the same bill twice, three months apart. If this happens, Albo can go to the Governor General and ask for an early election and parliament will be dissolved.
When a double dissolution happens it also means that all of the senate seats come up for re-election, instead of just half of them. Meaning that essentially everything is up for grabs.
Labor is playing hard ball on the housing bill knowing they have a double dissolution up their sleeve, because if an early election is called the Greens risk losing seats to independents or minor parties in the Senate. But the Greens know that this same risk also applies to Labor, and they could both come out the other side of an early election with less seats between them.
The last time this happened it was called by Malcom Turnbull and it’s safe to say that it turned out… not as he would have hoped.
So with the Greens and Labor looking down at a stalemate over this bill it could mean we’ll either get a changed version of the proposed legislation or we could be back at the voting booths way sooner than planned.
