One in 10 new homes built would be public housing and Australia’s standard rental lease doubled to two years under measures put to the federal government by the nation’s peak union body.

In 2021, 2.9 million Australian households were renters, with the prospect a more financially viable option compared to home ownership, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

The Australian Trade Council of Unions is pushing Labor to amend its national rental framework to require landlords to offer at least two years of housing security as the default standard.

This change – designed to ease the financial pressures of moving homes repeatedly – would also include stronger protections against unfair evictions and rent gouging.

“Nurses, teachers and other workers are living with the yearly uncertainty that comes with constant rent hikes and one-year leases being the standard option,” ACTU President Michele O’Neil said in a statement.

“Our housing system should reflect the reality that millions of working people are renters.”

The ACTU is also pushing for the government to establish a new public housing target that would lift the construction rate from 1 in 50 new homes to 1 in 10.

If implemented, this would bring Australia’s public housing construction rate to the same level as it was under the Hawke government.

“If we’re serious about fixing the housing crisis, we must increase public housing stock to free up homes in the private rental market and make renting more affordable for everyone,” Ms O’Neil said.

“Using modern construction methods such as factory-built modular housing can deliver high-quality homes faster at lower cost and greater scale.

“Governments must all step up and tackle Australia’s housing crisis with the ambition it needs.

“We need more homes, stronger rights for renters, faster construction and renewed investment in public housing.”

O’Neil, Cash spar on rent rises

Earlier, Liberal frontbencher Michaelia Cash accused the government of “gaslighting” Australians over the impact of its tax changes on rent increases around the country.

Her comments came in response to a report in The Australian that real estate giant Ray White backed forecasts of rents increasing by up to 30 per cent.

This increase reflected how much rents would need to rise, if prices did not change, for minimum investor yield – a hurdle rate for investments – to be restored after the loss of negative gearing on established homes.

Asked about the figures, Housing Minister Clare O’Neil told Seven’s Sunrise there was “an awful lot” that went into determining rents.

She insisted the government was dealing with a “broken housing system” in the context of four decades of federal inaction.

Treasury’s modelling of the impact of the budget tax changes, which concluded it would contribute $2 per week to rent increases, reflected the “isolated effect of what the government changed about the housing system”, the Labor minister added.

But Senator Cash warned Labor had to take “a bit of responsibility” for the rental crisis and “stop gaslighting the mum and dads” struggling in the rental crisis.