The Help to Buy bill faces a final vote in the Senate scheduled for Tuesday. Follow today’s news live

The government has rejected the Greens’ latest compromise offer to pass the Help to Buy housing bill, continuing the long-running stand-off into the parliament’s final week for 2024.

Government sources said the Greens’ demands would be variously unlawful, unhelpful or require spending Labor saw as wasteful. The government is now challenging the Greens to back the Help to Buy bill anyway, still not budging on any demands – with a final vote in the Senate scheduled for tomorrow. Clare O’Neill has today said:

This continuous charade from the Greens has to stop. You get the distinct impression the Greens want Australians to continue to be in housing distress, so Adam Bandt can try to harvest those grievances into votes. It’s the crassest form of politics there is, straight out of the Peter Dutton playbook.

The Greens are offering Labor an opportunity to announce the construction of 25,000 social and affordable homes, helping over 60,000 people into affordable homes in the middle of a housing crisis, why on earth would Labor block that?

Consistently throughout this Parliament, the Greens have blocked and delayed action on the housing crisis, looking for every excuse to vote down legislation which is clearly good for the country.

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