While buying a first home is now out of reach for many, the Abbott Government has axed the key housing advisory body and is washing its hands of all responsibility for the warped state of the Australian housing market.

Greens housing spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam said recently released ABS figures showed potential first home owners were being locked out of the market, even as the Government moved to abolish the National Housing Supply Council.

Senator Ludlam asked the minister representing the Minister for the Environment, in writing, on 12 November 2013:

With reference to the 29 April 2013 conditional approval by the Western Australia Environmental Protection Agency to the Mangles Bay Marina project in Cape Peron being assessed bilaterally under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the Act):

The Abbott Government's frenzy of cuts will wipe out Australia's only independent housing supply research body, the Greens warned today.

"For many Australians today rents are at crisis point and home ownership well beyond their means - the Abbott Government's plan to abolish the National Housing Supply Council will make the situation worse," said Greens spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam.

Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, Australian Greens spokesperson on waste and recycling, launched an online petition to demonstrate to the new Environment Minister how popular a national container deposit scheme is.

“I congratulate Minister Hunt on his appointment and call on him to introduce a national cash-for-containers scheme, something that the overwhelming majority of Australians

Budget Estimates 29 May 2013

Senator Ludlam asked: