Federal housing minister Julie Collins has stared down the Greens' demands for national rent freezes and caps, leaving the Albanese government's signature housing package in limbo without the minor party's needed support.
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Asked whether there should be a rent freeze or limit on rent increases, the minister told ABC Insiders on Sunday this was a matter for state and territory governments, some of whom have already ruled out the measures.
Ms Collins added that the majority of experts said these measures don't work to reduce rent prices.
"We obviously want to look at things that do work and the primary thing we're being told is add to supply, and that's what we're trying to do," she said.
The minister's comments follow an intense week in Federal Parliament, which saw the Greens - with Coalition support - successfully delay a Senate vote on Labor's much-anticipated affordable housing package until October.
The Greens are withholding support for the government's $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) until the federal government offers state and territory governments a $1 billion annual incentive to implement a two-year rent freeze and ongoing rent caps.
Multiple states - including NSW, SA, Queensland and Victoria - have ruled out freezing rents. Rent caps - which limit the frequency and/or size of rent increases - already exist the ACT and will be implemented in Queensland from July.
'Rent caps do work': Greens' housing spokesperson
Minister Collins acknowledged rent caps work "in a little way", but added that "overall, the evidence and data shows that it doesn't work long-term".
"What it shows long-term in terms of what the experts are telling us is that it reduces supply," she told Insiders.
But Greens housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather refuted the claim, pointing to the ACT where annual rent increases are limited to 110 per cent of the consumer price index.
"Actually, rent caps do work," he told reporters on Sunday.
"The ACT's rent caps have only seen rents go up by 0.2 per cent over the last 12 months, while the rest of Australia has caught 10 or 20 per cent rent increases."
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Canberra rents went up by 0.3 per cent over the 12 months to March this year, while average prices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth all rose by over 10 per cent, according to CoreLogic's Quarterly Rental Review.
The Coalition have all but checked out of the conversation, insisting they won't pass the HAFF over inflationary concerns, meaning the government needs the Greens' vote for the legislation to pass the Senate.
Mr Chandler-Mather accused the Albanese government of "trying to play politics on a serious housing issue", adding that "they've looked at the same evidence we have".
"It's clear that the Housing Minister knows that rent caps work and maybe they need to put the politics aside for a second and let's come to the negotiating table and work out a plan that actually starts to help people," he said.
PM doesn't rule out double dissolution
Elsewhere on Sunday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese didn't rule out the prospect of a double dissolution over the affordable housing package delay, but said he believed "governments should serve their full term".
"I firmly believe that governments should serve their full term, that's my starting position. But we will wait and see what the Greens political party choose to do," he told Sky News.
"They're saying that they won't vote for the legislation until something they know is not going to happen occurs."
The government can only dissolve the Senate and call an early election when a bill is rejected by the Senate, or fails to pass, after two attempts. The housing bill has technically been delayed twice in the Senate (Labor tried to call it on for a vote in May).
The Prime Minister revealed on Friday the government had received advice from the solicitor general agreeing that delaying the affordable housing bill twice constituted a failure to pass the legislation and could be grounds for a double dissolution.