Pocock’s price for supporting Labor’s industrial relation reforms? $100 million

Independent Senator David Pocock, who has vowed to do everything he can to wipe a $100 million in historical housing debt in the ACT, is set to test the Albanese government’s resolve not to buy upper house votes with debt relief.

Pocock will reportedly ask for the debt to be forgiven as a condition for his support for the government’s industrial relations reform push. The government will be able to pass the legislation through the House of Representatives, but will struggle to get it through the Senate without Pocock’s support.

The Australian Financial Review, citing anonymous sources, reported on Tuesday that the ACT senator is pushing for the abolition of the debt as part of negotiations over the government’s industrial relations legislation.

Pocock wrote in a media statement on his website last week he would do “everything possible to see this debt forgiven”.

Attempts to reach Pocock on Tuesday morning were unsuccessful.

If Pocock managed to get the debt forgiven in exchange for his vote, it would follow an Australian tradition of parliamentary horse trading.

Tasmanian independent Jacqui Lambie managed to wipe $150 million of the state’s debts in 2019 after she agreed to back the former Coalition government’s income tax cuts.

Gillard-era kingmakers Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor secured billions of dollars in funding for regional Australia in exchange for their support for the government’s policies, and former independent Tasmanian senator Brian Harradine used his powerful position in the 1990s to score money for his home state.

Housing Minister Julie Collins told The Canberra Times on Tuesday the government couldn’t afford to wipe the ACT’s debt because other states and territories owe large sums as well.

“The thing around historic housing debt is, of course, that across the board there’s about over $1 billion that the states and territories still have in that debt,” she told the newspaper.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher — the ACT’s other senator — has previously said the government won’t do the kind of deals the Coalition did with Lambie.

“I’m not finance minister for the ACT — as much as at times I would like to be — I’m finance minister of the country. And I don’t think it’s right to waive debts for the price of a vote on the Senate floor, which is how it’s happened in the past,” she said last week, according to The Canberra Times.