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The government will reintroduce the legislation for its shared equity scheme to Federal Parliament next week.
In doing so, it moves one step closer to setting up the circumstances that would allow the Prime Minister to trigger a double dissolution election.
In mid-September, the government attempted to bring a vote on its Help to Buy legislation in the Senate but failed in the task, with the Greens and Coalition successfully voting to table the issue until November.
Considering that to be tantamount to defeat, the government has now said that it will reintroduce the bill to enable the shared equity scheme next week. If the legislation is once again sent to the Senate, and rejected, that would allow the Prime Minister to call for a double dissolution of Parliament.
A double dissolution election can be called by the Prime Minister when the upper house rejects a government bill twice over the course of at least three months. In this case, the Senate delay is being taken as the first “failure to pass”. Although already within the window to hold a regular election, if the correct circumstances were met, the government might choose to call a double dissolution, as it puts every Senate seat into question, rather than the usual 50 per cent.
While the possibility of a double dissolution election is still considered unlikely given that several hurdles still stand in the way, Housing Minister Clare O’Neil told the ABC this week that a double dissolution election should be considered a “serious proposition” at this point in time.
“We do need a circuit breaker,” she added.
O’Neil accused the Greens and the Liberals of “doing everything they can” to stop the government from making progress on the legislation, which would institute a program that supports 40,000 people over four years into home ownership, with the government committing 40 per cent towards purchase price of a new home and 30 per cent towards an existing home. Price caps for the maximum purchase price would be set depending on the property’s location, with the government retaining its equity share and be repaid upon sale of the property, or the owner would make incremental payments to buy out the government’s portion of the home.
While the Coalition opposes the shared equity plan outright, the Greens have said they are willing to negotiate. At the first introduction of the bill, the minor party asked for significant changes to negative gearing policy and the capital gains tax discount, as well as rental freezes and other housing measures in return for its members’ support.
After the September delay, Greens leader Adam Bandt signalled that the party might be willing to support the legislation with just a partial concession from the government.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Juliet Helmke
Based in Sydney, Juliet Helmke has a broad range of reporting and editorial experience across the areas of business, technology, entertainment and the arts. She was formerly Senior Editor at The New York Observer.
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