00:00 The Prime Minister is effectively saying that if the Senate doesn't play ball here, he will
00:05 put this matter to the Australian people and have a trigger for an early election, a double
00:11 dissolution election where the entire Senate seats are up for grabs as compared to a normal
00:17 election where only half the Senate is up for election at any one time.
00:21 This $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund is designed to support 30,000 new social
00:27 and affordable homes over the next couple of years or so.
00:30 It has stalled in the Senate a couple of weeks ago before the long winter break.
00:35 The Greens and the Coalition had teamed up to effectively kick this into the long grass
00:40 there, stopping it being brought on for a vote.
00:44 If this happens again, or indeed there is a vote on this legislation and it is blocked,
00:49 the government believes it will have a double dissolution trigger that the Prime Minister
00:53 can have sitting in his back pocket to use at any moment there.
00:58 This is something that has been the subject of a lot of debate here in Canberra and right
01:02 across the country, whether or not this policy will actually go far enough to ease the housing
01:08 crisis.
01:09 That's certainly the concern the Greens have, saying that it is not the best way to tackle
01:14 the situation and that it doesn't go anywhere near far enough to ease those concerns across
01:20 the country.
01:21 But the Prime Minister is remaining steadfast with this legislation to be reintroduced.
01:25 He was on ABC Radio Sydney this morning and he insisted that while he doesn't necessarily
01:29 want to go to an early election, he's keeping his options open.
01:34 I'd rather not have it.
01:36 I'd rather have this policy passed.
01:38 But of course, a double dissolution trigger, what that does is doesn't necessarily provide
01:44 for an early election.
01:47 It could go into 2025.
01:49 But what it does is mean that that can be a focus.
01:54 And then you have a joint sitting after a double dissolution election is held.
01:59 But I just want this legislation to be passed.
02:02 The Prime Minister speaking earlier this morning, now he's accusing the Greens of playing politics
02:07 on this and not negotiating.
02:08 In turn, the Greens are accusing him of playing politics and not negotiating.
02:12 Funny that when they're talking about politicians and then their behaviour.
02:15 Max Chandler-Mather is the Greens housing spokesperson and he says that clearly the
02:20 party has a list of demands.
02:22 It wants things like rent freezes and rent caps as part of this legislation, something
02:26 that the Prime Minister says is outside of his control and would require the states and
02:31 territories to put in place.
02:32 And they don't want to do that.
02:34 But regardless, Max Chandler-Mather says that the party is not budging and is also not concerned
02:40 or not scared by the threat of a double dissolution election.
02:43 Well, of course, in any negotiation, we should be prepared to vote down a bill if the government
02:48 refuses to move.
02:49 I would be very clear that the government is now reintroducing their bill into the House
02:53 unchanged, and then threatening an election.
02:56 And what we'd like to see is us come together and work out a plan that actually starts to
03:01 tackle the scale of the crisis.
03:04 One thing that we should keep an eye on is some of the changes to the unemployment benefits
03:08 jobseeker, the proposal that was announced in the budget of increasing that rate.
03:14 That legislation does need to be dealt with in this set of parliamentary sittings for
03:17 it to come into effect from September.
03:19 But we have also already heard from the federal opposition saying that they want to amend
03:24 that legislation.
03:25 The $40 a week increase doesn't go far enough.
03:29 So $40 a fortnight increase doesn't go far enough to actually helping people and that
03:33 they want the eligibility requirements around jobseeker to be tinkered with instead.
03:38 So that could also provide for some interesting debate in both the House and particularly
03:43 in the Senate as politicians make their way back to Canberra after that winter break.
03:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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