One of the country's most powerful Land Councils has challenged the two major political parties to stop blaming each other over the failure to adequately address overcrowded housing in the Northern Territory and to articulate how they will fix the issue.
The calls follow the release of a report by the federal government's National Audit Office that found more than half of the houses in the Territory's remote Indigenous communities are considered overcrowded.
The impacts have been brought into focus this year with the COVID-19 outbreak in the Territory affecting mostly Aboriginal people in overcrowded homes.
In March 2019 the Australian and NT Governments entered into a National Partnership to build 1,950 bedrooms in remote communities or the equivalent to about 650 houses.
The Federal Government committed more than half a billion dollars over five years to fund the project.
The funding is administered to the NT government to implement the builds by the National Indigenous Australian Agency.(NIAA)
But the report found that as of September 2021, the Territory Government had built 363 bedrooms or 121 three-bedroom houses, achieving just 19 per cent of the program’s targets.
In response to questions from NITV News, the Territory government claimed that number had jumped to 448 bedrooms as of 31 December.
'Overcrowding kills'
At least 1,857 new houses need to be built to address overcrowding, and a further 74 each year after that to keep up with population growth.
Central Land Council chair Sammy Wilson called for urgent reform measures to make this happen.
“Overcrowding kills, as this pandemic has shown once again, because our growing families can’t safely isolate from the virus," he said.
“How many more reports do governments need until they admit that they are not reducing overcrowding fast enough?”
CLC chief executive Les Turner said the governments need to stop finger-pointing and work alongside the Territory's Aboriginal Organisations to build a sustainable sector.
”The governments need to support remote community housing trials that will reveal the true cost of shifting to Aboriginal-controlled housing and invest in re-building the sector that was decimated by the Intervention,” he said.
“Bush voters want to know what the major parties will do if they win government in May.”
Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt wrote a number of letters outlining his concerns about the delivery of remote housing in the NT. Source: AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Ongoing concerns
Last year, the Federal Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt expressed serious concerns about the Northern Territory Government’s ability to deliver new housing for remote communities.
These were expressed on three separate occasions in letters to Chansey Paech, the Northern Territory Minister for Remote Housing and Town Camps, and were recently released under freedom of information.
“I remained greatly concerned that the delays in the delivery of houses means remote communities are missing out on greatly needed economic stimulus and the many benefits of improved housing," Mr Wyatt wrote in March 2021.
He followed that up in June and October, saying he remained "concerned about the delay" and that it would require "concerted effort by the NT government" to achieve 1950 bedrooms by 2023.
But the Audit report also singled out the federal government’s failings.
Current NT Minister for Remote Housing and Town Camps Chansey Paech speaking with a member of Titjikala community in 2017. Source: AAP
It found the federal government’s National Indigenous Australians Agency was ineffective and needed to improve its management and distribution of funds.
The agency also needed to ensure that housing being built met required standards and was delivered by local Indigenous people and businesses, or through local decision making.
The report also noted that remote housing programs were high-risk, and the National Partnership did not include any provisions to manage these risks – including verifying the Northern Territory government’s achievements in delivering against the National Partnership Agreement.
The audit also recommended changes to improve public accountability, by providing accurate information on how both government’s can achieve what they promised in the first place -improve housing in remote NT communities.
The NIAA has agreed to implement all five recommendations from the audit office.
