Australian Greens: Victorian Greens launch election platform including plan for 200,000 homes and bank levy…

The Victorian Greens have today launched their broad policy platform for the upcoming state election.

It is their boldest platform yet and promises transformative politics to push the next government to go further and faster on issues like climate change and housing affordability.

The party hopes to build on the momentum of the federal election where more Victorians voted [1] Greens than ever before, disillusioned by the major parties and wanting strong voices for climate action in Parliament.

One of the flagship policies announced in their platform today is a big build of 200,000 affordable and public homes over the next 20 years, to address the housing affordability crisis and create tens of thousands of jobs.

Of the 200,000 homes, 100,000 would be public homes built over the next ten years to help end homelessness and alleviate Victoria’s growing public housing waiting list, which has ballooned out to over 120,000 people. 

For Victorians struggling to own their own home, the Greens’ plan would see 30 per cent of big multi-unit developments being sold at affordable rates to first home buyers. These homes would be priced at 80 per cent of the market rate and only available for first home owners who would live in the home for at least three years.

As part of the plan the Greens would also introduce the public and affordable housing levy that the Labor Government shelved after pressure from the property development industry, so that all developers would be required to contribute their fair share to affordable housing. Developers required to provide affordable housing to first home buyers would be exempt from the levy. 

The Greens are also proposing revenue measures that would help fund key policy initiatives while making the big banks, property developers and gambling industry pay their fair share.

This includes a levy on the big banks who continue to make tens of billions in profit every year. At just 0.015% quarterly of Victoria’s share of bank liabilities, costing by the Parliamentary Budget Office shows the levy would raise around $1.4 billion dollars over the next four years.

Other key policies in the platform released today include:

• Legislating an end date for coal mining and burning in Victoria of 2030 and moving the state towards 100% renewable energy.
• A cap on rent increases in line with wage growth to prevent Victorian renters facing insecure housing or eviction.
• Investing a massive $1.3 billion dollars in aged care, rehabilitation and geriatric beds to help relieve the pressure weighing on our hospital system. 
• A major boost in our public transport system that would see trains and trams run every ten minutes or less across the majority of the metro network.
• A $1 billion per year Zero Extinction Fund to help protect and restore the state’s threatened species and their habitat.
• Greater protections for LGBTIQA+ communities enshrined in law and increased funding for community-led LGBTIQA+ services.

You can explore the full platform online at: greens.org.au/vic/platform. Further policies will be announced during the course of the campaign.

Quotes attributable to Leader of the Victorian Greens, Samantha Ratnam MLC: 

“This is one of the most important elections we’ve had in a long time.

“We are in a housing affordability crisis, yet Labor’s plan for 9,000 social homes over ten years is woefully inadequate: need is already outstripping supply and under Labor’s plan that problem will get worse, not better.

“This is the critical decade for climate action, yet Labor has no plan to end coal and stop gas drilling in places like near the 12 Apostles.

“The time for tinkering around the edges is over. With more Greens in Parliament we can push the next government to go further and faster on housing affordability, climate action and restoring integrity to politics.”

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