Greens Leader Adam Bandt has refused to say if his party will vote against the government’s Help to Buy legislation, as he accuses federal Labor of refusing to negotiate.
Yesterday, the Coalition and the Greens joined forces to drag out the debate on Labor’s proposal to use federal funds to help 40,000 people buy their first homes.
Speaking this morning on ABC Radio National, Bandt accused the government of refusing to negotiate.
“It seems the prime minister would rather force his bill to a vote and have it fail than negotiate an outcome on the three things that are driving the housing crisis,” he said.
Asked multiple times if the Greens were prepared to vote against the Help to Buy legislation, Bandt refused to say.
Greens leader Adam Bandt.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“I think that it’s the government who’s got to stop trying to bulldoze and start negotiating,” he said.
“We’re going to move for two months to allow the government to come to the negotiating table, to negotiate on the things that are driving the housing crisis.”
Bandt added that the government has not yet made any concessions to the Greens’ demands, despite having 290 days to deal with this housing legislation.
“The Greens have worked with the government on other bills to improve them and pass them and that’s because the government has been prepared to shift, and now it seems the closer that we get to an election, the more the prime minister is saying that he’s not going to budge and that it’s his way or the highway,” Bandt said.
“This is a massive housing rental process, this is probably the only chance remaining in this parliament to tackle it and if this is all the government’s got, and they’re refusing to negotiate, and they’re threatening an early election, they’ve got to explain [that] to the Australian people.”
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