With the Greens likely to be in balance of power on Labor’s forthcoming housing bill, the Australian Greens Party Room has formally empowered Greens Leader Adam Bandt and Housing and Homelessness Spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather, MP for Griffith, to negotiate with the Government on upcoming legislation establishing the Housing Australia Future Fund. The Greens will push for a much bigger direct government build of housing, a national rent freeze and an upgrade of existing public housing.

Analysis by the Parliamentary Library estimates that renters across Australia would be $7.1 billion better off if rents had been frozen nationwide for the past 12 months. With rents increasing by 14% nationwide, the average renter is paying $3,151 more for their home than last year. 

The Greens recently called on the Federal Government to intervene in the housing crisis by freezing rents nationwide for two years, followed by ongoing rent caps and an end to no grounds evictions, minimum standards for rental properties and tenant rights to make minor improvements to the home.

Today the Scottish government has announced they are freezing rents for all public and private rental properties until March 2023 and banning evictions over winter, to protect Scottish renters from the impacts of a devastating cost of living crisis.