For the second consecutive year, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has announced a budget surplus, which has sparked criticism labeling it as “a surplus built on people’s suffering” amid the ongoing challenges of housing and cost-of-living issues.

As the Budget looms on Tuesday evening, Max Chandler-Mather, the Greens’ housing spokesperson, criticized the $9.3 billion surplus, arguing it showcases “Labor’s indifference towards the housing crisis.”

Chandler-Mather stated, “With $9.3 billion, we could finance the construction of 18,600 public homes.”

“This would mark the most significant year for public housing development in decades, transforming countless lives.”

“Instead, Labor opts to announce a $9.3 billion surplus. This highlights their disregard for the housing crisis,” he continued.

Ahead of the Budget delivery on Tuesday evening, Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather slammed the $9.3billion surplus as evidence of ‘how little Labor cares about the housing crisis’

Chandler-Mather, a first-term MP known for challenging Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, isn’t alone among progressives in criticizing the government’s budget surplus.

Greens Senator Nick McKim was scathing of the surplus and Budget as a whole, saying: ‘This is a surplus built on people’s suffering.

‘Labor needs to watch out – because disillusionment and disappointment quickly turns into anger.’

‘People have every right to be angry about a budget that finds $764 billion for defence but can’t find a cent to raise the rate of JobSeeker or Youth Allowance. 

‘The government’s banking a surplus while young people and pensioners take out loans to pay the bills.’

Greens leader Adam Bandt described the Budget as one that has ‘betrayed those doing it tough by prioritising a surplus ahead of helping people’.

Dr Chalmers has celebrated it as an economic win for the government

‘Jim Chalmers’ decision to focus on a surplus in a cost-of-living crisis will harm people.

‘The government’s $9.3billion surplus could fund a rent freeze, put mental health into Medicare, or give every Australian in poverty over $3,000 in cost-of-living support – instead, a surplus is just a political talking point for Labor’s re-election campaign.

‘A renter only gets an extra dollar a day in rent assistance. The big-ticket items are bad for the country.’

But Dr Chalmers has celebrated it as an economic win for the government.

‘I want Australians to know that despite everything coming at us, we are among the best placed economies to manage these uncertainties and maximise our opportunities,’ he said during the Budget speech in the House of Representatives on Tuesday evening.

He said: ‘$9.3billion could fund the construction of 18,600 public homes. ‘It would be the largest year of public housing construction in decades, changing tens of thousands of lives

Labor has ignored Greens calls for rent freezes and instead has set its sights on lofty building targets

‘Last year, our responsible economic management delivered the first surplus in 15 years. We now expect another surplus, of $9.3billion this year.

‘These would be the first back-to-back surpluses in nearly two decades,’ he said.

But Dr Chalmers warned ‘pressures on the Budget intensify after that, rather than ease’.

He anticipates a deficit next year, even as gross debt steadily declines. This year it will be $904billion, compared to ‘the more than one trillion we inherited’.

Mr Chandler-Mather has been highly critical of the government’s housing policies, telling voters they could be doing more to fix the crisis.

Labor has ignored Greens calls for rent freezes and instead has set its sights on lofty building targets – arguing the only way to take pressure off the housing market is to increase supply.

This Budget includes a suite of measures focused on alleviating the pressures of the housing crisis, including $1billion to help build community infrastructure in regions facing significant development and a $1.9billion boost to Commonwealth Rent Assistance.