As calls grow for a $220b infrastructure spend to tackle the recession, new costings completed by the Parliamentary Budget Office, at the request of the Australian Greens, have revealed that the Government could fund $225 billion in job-rich major infrastructure projects for the same cost to the Budget of bringing forward round 2 of planned personal income tax cuts.

Safe, secure, affordable housing is a human right, but decades of neoliberal policy in housing and homelessness has made speculative assets of what should be homes. Federal governments have worsened inequality by being more concerned with preserving tax breaks for investors than ensuring that people have somewhere to live. The basic human right to shelter takes a back seat to the market. Australia's housing system has weak rental protection laws. It has years-long social housing waiting lists.

The Greens have today said the Andrews State Government’s unprecedented lockdown of social housing blocks had created appalling outcomes for tenants, urging the government to consider a ‘care first’ response instead of the forceful response exercised so far.

State and Federal members for Melbourne, Ellen Sandell MP and Adam Bandt MP also said the state government’s long term neglect of public housing facilities was a contributor to the harsh response.

Australian Greens Housing spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that the federal government and National Cabinet must act urgently to ensure renters and those in housing stress are not left in enormous debt or at risk of homelessness as the eviction ban ‘cliff’ rapidly approaches.

Senator Faruqi said:

“Over the coming weeks and months, renters face the prospect of eviction and possible homelessness as eviction bans come to an end across the states and territories.

I move:

That the Senate:

(a) notes that:

   (i) the COVID-19 crisis has further exposed existing inequalities in our broken housing system,

   (ii) renters across Australia face eviction as COVID-19 related eviction bans come to an end across states and territories, and

   (iii) as the economic crisis continues, more people are at risk of homelessness than ever before;

(b) calls on the Government to:

   (i) increase funding for emergency housing,

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

   (i) the Morrison Government's HomeBuilder scheme includes grants of $25,000 for home renovations valued between $150,000 to $750,000,

   (ii) individuals can earn up to $125,000, and couples can earn up to $200,000, a year to be eligible for the grants, and

   (iii) there is a huge backlog of urgent repairs needed in Australia's social housing stock; and

Responding to the government’s decision to axe JobKeeper early in childcare, end free childcare and ignore the high rates of women losing work in industries like education, arts and hospitality, Greens Leader Adam Bandt accused the government of having a 1950’s anti-women’s approach to economic recovery.

“This government wants women to be barefoot and pregnant. For Scott Morrison, a woman’s place is in a renovated kitchen,” said Mr Bandt.

The Greens have responded to the Morrison government’s ‘granite benchtop grant’ announcement today, saying its HomeBuilder scheme will use public money for private benefit and potentially make the homelessness crisis worse.

“Public money should be used to create construction jobs and tackle homelessness by building public housing, not to lift house values for people who can already afford large renovations,” said Greens Leader, Adam Bandt.

The Greens have said that the construction of public and community housing should drive construction stimulus, not ill-conceived and unnecessary new home and renovation grants.

Warning Scott Morrison against establishing a ‘Mansion Extension Fund’ in lieu of a public housing fund, the Greens say the proposal represents the height of hypocrisy for a government that criticised the construction of school halls as post-GFC stimulus.

Australian Greens Housing spokesperson, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, said:

The Greens support this motion. We have been strongly pushing for a massive investment from the federal government to build 500,000 public and community homes to provide much-needed roofs over people's heads. The COVID-19 crisis has exposed even more how broken our housing system is. It's time for the federal government to lead from the front with a multibillion-dollar investment to construct high-quality, climate-conscious public and community housing as part of the economic stimulus. This will also create tens of thousands of thousands of jobs and thousands of apprenticeships.