The prime minister will announce the $2 billion one-off investment — which will be distributed among the states and territories within the next two weeks — during a speech at the Victorian Labor Conference today.
Interesting. Greens start out demanding $10 billion (in exchange for their votes in the Senate which would pass the House Future Funding), Labor starts out at $0. Greens reduce to $5 billion, Labor greenlights $2 billion with no deal being made. Interesting move by Labor. I don't think this was in the budget forward estimates, so it appears to be a reaction to the Greens' $5 billion demand.
Regardless of who you think is right, it is nice to see policy actual being debated and compromised on.
What is interesting is just how much the Coalition have sidelined themselves in this debate. Housing is shaping up to be the pre-eminent issue of the decade and I really just cannot understand the political strategy of ignoring it completely... I guess they have had their hands full (pun intended).
I think Labor has figured out that not being seen doing anything on housing in the current environment will surely cost them votes towards the Greens, so that'd be part of the motivation for this announcement.
I am pleased to see something happen though, $2b is a lot better than nothing and should build a decent amount of housing.
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