Greens face pressure from housing advocates after delay to Housing Australia Future Fund

The move to delay the vote until October prompted outcry from Labor, with Senator Don Farrell calling the Greens and the Coalition "the axis of evil".

But the Greens doubled down on their call for the Albanese government to incentivise states to implement rental freezes and caps, vowing not to "roll over" on renters' rights.

Senator Farrell added that the Albanese government would consider the delay to mean Labor's housing bills - including its $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund - had failed to pass the Senate, indicating the Greens' move could pave the way for a double dissolution.

Greens leader Adam Bandt said his party was willing to continue negotiating on the fund, but told the government to "bring it on" following the warning this could lead to the Senate being dissolved.

"We've still got space to pass this bill and we will still work over coming months to come up with a plan to make unlimited rent increases illegal," he told media.

"But if Labor wants to go to an election on the basis that Labor wants rent increases to rise by as much as any landlord or property investor wants and there to be no limit on rent increases, then that would be, you know, bring it on."

The motion to delay came just hours after social housing and homelessness providers congregated in Parliament House on Monday, calling on the Senate to pass the legislation as soon as possible.

Community Housing Industry Association chief executive Wendy Hayhurst said she was "disappointed", adding that, even if the bill passed in October, it could see a further six-month delay on homes being built due to Christmas.

Charles Northcote, chief executive officer of BlueChp - a social, affordable and disability housing provider - said his staff had spent the last 18 months preparing 3,000 properties to start construction "as soon as the bill passed", which "may not happen [now] because we may miss the boat".

"You have to renegotiate all the transactions, you have to get the financing and all those structures need to be put in," he said.

"Momentum is critical ... we need to start building now.

"There's plenty of time to tweak and change, you know, organise little changes, to make the scheme work better."

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Ivan Simon, chief executive of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Housing Association, said the delay was "very sad" for First Nations peoples in need of affordable and social housing.

"We've become conditioned to disappointment, especially with government," he said.

"If the mainstream [housing and homelessness] sector is struggling with that delay, can you just imagine? That's a hundred-fold in our communities."

Mr Simon said the delay would mean that some people would need to "sleep through another three or four months before they'll even know they might get some housing support".

"And it might not happen straightaway because [for] a lot of people that have done a lot of work in preparation of getting things out the door fairly quickly once an announcement would have been hopefully made ... it's highly likely that those opportunities won't be around."

Asked to respond to the sector's call, Greens housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather said the party would not "roll over" on renter's rights.

"With all due respect to those groups, a lot of them previously have just called us to pass this bill for months. And if we had followed that advice, then we would have got nothing," he said.

Mr Bandt called warnings of a double dissolution "spin". Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Sydney Anne Twomey said the government would have "a reasonable case to argue" that the delay formed the first part of a double dissolution trigger.

A trigger could see every seat in the Senate and the House of Representatives contested at an election. This applies where the Senate either rejects a law passed by the House of Representatives, or fails to pass it, which is the case for the housing fund.

Failure to pass is more controversial because there is no strict timeframe in which a bill can fail to pass, Professor Twomey explained.

"I think if the government did put up that argument, if it was challenged, I think they'd have a reasonable case to argue that it had failed to pass."

The bill would have to be reintroduced to the Senate in three months, and be rejected or fail to pass, before a double dissolution could be triggered.

"I can't really say that having a double distribution trigger is particularly attractive to the Albanese government, but what's been happening would just be the very first step in that process," Professor Twomey said.

Housing Minister Julie Collins said "there is a cost to these delays".

"Every day of delay is more than $1.3 million that does not go to housing for people that need it," Ms Collins said.

The back-and-forth erupted just months after Mr Bandt declared the Greens would become "the party of renters" at the next election. The party is door-knocking in Labor electorates on housing policy, and handing out out cards saying "Rent freeze now. Ask me how" at property inspections.

While the Albanese government has made some concessions on the fund, including a $2 billion commitment to social and affordable housing at the weekend, it has not budged on introducing rental caps or freezes, which it says are an issue for state and territory government.

Experts and industry figures have meanwhile criticised rent freezes as a disincentive for landlords, arguing it could lead to a decrease in the supply of rentals.