NT government says it will spend $25m – and calls on federal government to match it

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Northern Territory government will invest $25m to upgrade town camps, starting with urgent repairs to housing and infrastructure, as part of its response to a review into the Indigenous communities.

But the report found that $77.7m was needed just to bring dilapidated housing up to a standard that complied with the Residential Tenancy Act. Further costs were required to address the identified problems, including infrastructure and opportunities to improve governance.

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“Various governments over the years had failed to provide an efficient and effective public housing service to Aboriginal people living in town camp communities,” the report said.

The report found that a combination of ageing houses – the majority were more than 20 years old – as well as neglect by tenants and a lack of appropriate maintenance meant almost one in five was in “poor condition” or worse.

The NT government has gsupported most of the recommendations in a 16,000-page review of town camps but it pushed back against recommendations to encourage people to move away from their homes for “economic opportunities”.

The review assessed more than 700 households, as well as essential services and other infrastructure, and service-delivery arrangements.

In housing refurbishments and rebuilds in Darwin alone, the estimated cost was $15.6m, with a further $32.4m for infrastructure maintenance and upgrades to meet current design standards.

Alice Springs required $34.8m in infrastructure improvements to meet design standards and $24.3m for new or improved housing. In Borroloola the cost estimates were $36.3m and $14.4m for infrastructure and housing.

The cost of maintaining and upgrading infrastructure in Katherine’s town camps was set at about $34.4m, with $11.2m for housing refurbishments and rebuilds.

In Tennant Creek $2.8m is needed for infrastructure and $10.5m for housing.

There were further costs, also in the millions, for other areas including Elliot and Jabiru.

The NT government called for the federal government to match its $25m investment dollar-for-dollar.

The territory has 43 town camps, mostly on the outskirts of Alice Springs and Darwin. While some have been developed or improved, others have been left to degrade, and governments have been accused of abandoning some of Australia’s most vulnerable people.

The One Mile Dam town camp, bordering the Darwin city centre, has had long-running housing problems, with about half the residences having no water or electricity, and many of them being little more than fenced sheds. Bagot community on the outskirts of Darwin has reported overcrowding and social problems.

The report recommended against building more homes in the camps, which it said would just “perpetuate the current cycle”. Instead it urged investment in “sustainable social housing” in regional centres which offer job and training opportunities and sustainable services.

“By incentivising migration to economic centres with robust economies through sustainable social housing programs and equipping residents of town camps, who choose to transition, with the skills to participate and the means to access employment, over time, we can make a real difference,” the report said.

In the meantime, housing had to be upgraded to meet the standards of the tenancy act, it said.

The NT housing and community development minister, Gerry McCarthy, said

while the government supported most of the recommendations it did not back the idea of encouraging people to move away from their homes to pursue economic opportunities.

“We will support residents to stay in their homes and develop a sustainable future for town camps,” he said.



The NT opposition leader, Gary Higgins, welcomed the review’s release but questioned the government’s commitment to improvements, since it had received the report in August last year.

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“I continue to question the Labor government’s commitment to truly listen to the concerns of some of the territory’s most disadvantaged people, given its ongoing inaction in relation to town camps,” he said.

The report is the result of an inquiry announced by the previous Country Liberal party government in 2016 after complaints from town camp residents and the launching of unprecedented legal action by several remote communities.

The Labor government received the report from Deloitte in August. The firm had been given several deadline extensions owing to the complex nature of the inquiry.

In its introduction it noted this complexity and the impact it and a lack of Indigenous involvement in policy development had on Indigenous communities in the NT.

“Aboriginal people are not an ongoing problem to be resolved, they are part of the solution,” it said.