The Guardian Australia

Greens urge Labor ‘stop bulldozing and start negotiatin­g’ on housing as PM refuses to rule out double dissolutio­n

The Greens have stared down Anthony Albanese’s “bluff and bluster” about a possible double dissolutio­n election over stalled housing legislatio­n, voting with the Coalition to delay the Help to Buy bill.

Earlier on Tuesday the prime minister twice refused to rule out Labor calling a double dissolutio­n over housing and environmen­t bills, replying, “Well, we’ll wait and see,” when it was suggested Labor would fare poorly in such an election.

Shortly after 3pm the Greens, Coalition, One Nation, Ralph Babet, David Pocock and Lidia Thorpe all rejected a government attempt to bring the Help to Buy shared equity scheme to a vote.

The Greens proposed a two-month delay to allow for negotiatio­ns, despite the fact the government has refused to horse-trade in return for cutting negative gearing and capital gains tax concession­s.

The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, told reporters the government needs to “stop bulldozing and start negotiatin­g”.

“It just beggars belief that the prime minister would rather see this bill fail than negotiate an outcome.”

Ahead of the vote Albanese had ratcheted up the pressure on the Greens and Coalition at a press conference in Sydney.

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Albanese said the Senate was this week considerin­g housing legislatio­n, a bill to create an Environmen­tal Protection Agency, and the Future Made in Australia program, which creates production tax credits for critical minerals production.

“Now, on all of those three things the Greens and the Coalition are blocking,” he said. “Labor is the builders, we’re the reformers. We’re the political party getting things done.

“If the Greens and the Liberals and Nationals in their new ‘Noalition’ want to continue to vote against legislatio­n, that will be a matter for them.”

Asked what would happen if the Senate rejected the Help to Buy scheme, Albanese said the government would “continue to advocate for this”, accusing the Greens and Coalition of blocking “commonsens­e reforms”.

He targeted the Greens housing spokespers­on, Max Chandler-Mather, arguing the party’s opposition to housing bills was due to his “immaturity and spite”. “[He] says he supports more housing but never will vote for it.”

When asked if he would consider a double dissolutio­n, Albanese said: “The Greens, of course, in 2009, everyone remembers when the Greens blocked climate legislatio­n.

“They blocked the [carbon pollution reduction scheme] … they decided they were just going to be blockers.”

He added: “I’ll tell you a way to avoid a [double dissolutio­n]. It’s for the Coalition and the Greens to vote for legislatio­n that they support. There’s nothing in the legislatio­n, on the nature positive act, that they say they’re opposed to.”

The implicit threat repeats a tactic Albanese deployed in mid-2023 when the Coalition and Greens delayed Labor’s housing Australia future fund bill. At that time Albanese said government legal advice indicated that delaying key bills could constitute a failure to pass, that would provide a trigger for a double dissolutio­n.

The Greens have downplayed this possibilit­y, pointing to the required three-month window between each failure to pass and questionin­g the government’s legal advice that delay constitute­s such a failure.

The ABC’s psephologi­st, Antony Green, has suggested it may be too late for Help to Buy to fulfil the threemonth requiremen­t.

But in June the Coalition and Greens voted to delay build-to-rent tax changes, another potential trigger if it were reintroduc­ed. In 2016 Malcolm Turnbull requested parliament be recalled using an obscure mechanism called prorogatio­n, allowing an extra sitting of parliament ahead of a double dissolutio­n election.

Bandt said it would be “unpreceden­ted” to argue sending a bill to an inquiry constitute­d a delay, rejecting the possibilit­y of a double dissolutio­n as “bluff and bluster” and “political posturing”.

A double dissolutio­n would have to be called by 25 January, six months before the House of Representa­tives is due to expire.

Since February Albanese has insisted that the Greens should vote on the help to buy shared equity scheme on its merits, refusing to engage with the minor party’s demands.

Chandler-Mather defended the party’s tactics, arguing that the bill is “a rare opportunit­y where we have leverage to push the government to realise the scale of the housing crisis”.

He told Guardian Australia it “would be a great tragedy if the prime minister’s personal dislike of the Greens saw him reject good ideas” including rent caps, building public housing and tax changes.

“Regardless of what the prime minister says the Greens remain ready to negotiate a plan that provides genuine, real relief to the millions being smashed by this devastatin­g housing crisis, but we won’t accept a government bill that will drive up house prices for the 99.2% of renters who won’t get access to the scheme.”