A Senate Inquiry has today tabled its timely report on the housing affordability and homelessness crisis facing Australia, making a range of practical proposals for making housing more affordable.

Australian Greens deputy leader Senator Scott Ludlam participated in the Senate Economics References Committee report into Affordable Housing.

"This is an evidence-based, substantive report that clearly sets out the reality that we have the tools at hand to deal with the housing affordability crisis," Senator Ludlam said today.

Transcript - Housing Affordability 

The Greens have noted the release of the Anglicare Rental Affordability Snapshot, which paints a really grim picture of the catastrophically unaffordable state of housing for the nation's renters.

A third of Australian households are rental households, and many people, particularly young people, have given up on the thought of ever owning their own home.

The Australian Greens have called for the federal government to reverse half a billion dollars of cuts to housing affordability and homelessness services and rethink its blinkered opposition to reforming negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions that have artificially inflated property prices.

Anglicare's National Rental Affordability Snapshot for 2015 was released today, showing a severe rental affordability crisis for Australians on low and fixed incomes or income support payments.

The Australian Greens said today that a damning report on the Perth Freight link should be the final nail in the coffin of the unwanted project.

The report was prepared by Professor Peter Newman and Cole Hendrigan from the Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute (CUSP) and describes the project as ‘a waste of taxpayers' money', confirming what residents and rail transport advocates have been saying for years.

The importance of Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam's Energy 2029 100% renewable energy plan has been further underscored today by the release of The Energy Report - 100% Renewable Energy by 2050 by WWF and ANU.

"This WWF and ANU publication provides yet another report on tangible means for achieving a 100% renewable energy network, and for getting WA off the fossil treadmill," Senator Scott Ludlam said today.

The Australian Greens said today that the Abbott government's 2014 cuts to housing and homelessness will continue to drag down the nation's housing affordability unless they are reversed in the upcoming federal budget.

"Published today by the Social Progress Imperative, the Social Progress Index shows that Australia is ranked 51st out of 133 countries on housing affordability. This is an indictment on Tony Abbott and his government's cruelty," Senator Scott Ludlam, Australian Greens housing spokesperson said today.

The Australian Greens said today that the government's metadata regime would make it easier for companies to embark on speculative invoicing attacks against Australians who are suspected of downloading movies in breach of copyright.

"The Federal Court decision today, that will see the names and residential addresses of around 4700 alleged copyright infringers handed to a US company, is likely to be the first of many," Senator Scott Ludlam, Australian Greens communication spokesperson said today.

"Copyright laws exist for a reason and they should not be infringed upon.

The Australian Greens have called on the government to fast-track the implementation of a scheme to mandate notifications of data breaches, as the international community reacts to news that the personal information of 31 world leaders was compromised by the immigration department.

"This is an embarrassing international incident which highlights that no system is infallible," Senator Scott Ludlam, Greens communication spokesperson said today.

The Australian Greens have condemned an Abbott/Shorten unity ticket that has passed data retention laws through federal parliament this afternoon.

“The ALP has caved in to Tony Abbott's self-interested fear campaign and supported a bill that entrenches a form of passive mass surveillance over 23 million Australians," Senator Scott Ludlam, Australian Greens communications spokesperson said following the vote. 

“The ALP will be judged for that, and we will ensure that people never forget who made this possible.