This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE Federal and Northern Territory governments will invest $4 billion over 10 years into housing in remote Territory communities in a bid to halve overcrowding.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made the announcement yesterday during a visit to the community of Binjari, near Katherine. The 10-year commitment to build 2,700 houses means new homes for more than 10,000 people, and includes continued support for repairs and maintenance.
“The Northern Territory has the highest level of overcrowding in the country which we are working to halve by building 270 houses each year,” Albanese said.
“Today’s announcement will improve housing conditions in remote communities and help close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.”
Speaking to reporters at Binjari, Albanese was pressed as to why the cost of the program equated to a high $1.5 million per house.
“Well, this is over a period of time, so we’ve built in the factors of inflation that occurs over a 10-year period. But it’s also, we want to make sure as well that we’re providing employment and skills and that upgrade as we’re going. These homes, we’re looking at three-bedroom homes on average,” he said.
“Many of them, of course, are in very remote communities, is what we’re looking at. This community here is pretty close to Katherine, but some will be much more isolated, we’ll be rolling out this housing and with that comes additional costs. We accept that. So, what we want to make sure isn’t that it’s underfunded.”
Available government data suggests a decline in overcrowding over time, although overcrowding rates are still very high. The proportion of First Nations people living in overcrowded conditions fell from 31% in 2001 to 19% in 2021. This drop in overcrowding represents a narrowing of the gap between First Nations people and non-Indigenous Australians from 24 to 12 percentage points.
The Northern Territory government’s remote housing website says the Territory has only spent just over $500 billion out of its $1.1 billion allocation under a previous agreement with the federal government, and that it has only completed 900 homes out of 1,600 that were approved to be built.
“Can you really trust the Northern Territory Government with $1.9 billion in funding to deliver this, especially when you’ve had to come in personally and intervene with Northern Territory government on something like this?” Albanese was quizzed at the press conference.
“This is a jointly funded program and we want to make sure that we’ll be very much hands-on,” Albanese said.
A key target of 1,950 bedrooms under the National Partnership for Remote Housing NT was met in December, six months late. In 2023-24, 157 houses are on track to be delivered “well ahead of schedule”, the government said. That is part of the five-year deal struck in 2019 by the Morrison government.
A partnership agreement will be established between the Commonwealth and Northern Territory governments and Aboriginal Housing NT – the Territory’s peak First Nations housing body, and Aboriginal Land Councils to help meet the newly established target.
A further $1 million will be provided by the Commonwealth to Aboriginal Housing NT over the next two years to support their role in the partnership.
In addition to the new $4 billion agreement, the Albanese government will invest a further $120 million over three years to match the Northern Territory government’s yearly investment to continue delivery of housing improvements and essential infrastructure upgrades in remote homelands.
Northern Territory Chief Minister Eva Lawler said the investment would achieve “unprecedented” housing outcomes across the Territory.
“This is a game changer for the Territory, as this investment goes straight into the hands of our remote communities and Territory businesses.”
The newly announced program follows last year’s Restoring Funding for NT Homelands agreement, which sees a contribution from the federal government worth $100 million, and the funding is in addition to the Northern Territory government’s existing $40 million per annum investment in homelands housing and essential infrastructure upgrades.
Commonwealth-funded delivery of housing across remote communities in the Territory has increased by more than 200% between 2021-22 and 2022-23.
Estimates from the 2021 Census indicate that around 24,900 Indigenous Australians were homeless on Census night, making up 3.1% of the Indigenous population. The homelessness rate for Indigenous Australians was 8.8 times the rate for non-Indigenous Australians, or 307 compared with 35 per 10,000 people.