NT Minister for Remote Housing and Homelands Selena Uibo (left) and Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney sign the remote housing agreement. Photo: Linda Burney Facebook.
The Federal and Northern Territory governments have signed a landmark 10-year, $4 billion remote housing partnership agreement towards a better housing system across the Territory’s 73 remote communities.
Signed on Thursday at the remote community of Milikapiti on the Tiwi Islands by Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney and NT Minister for Remote Housing and Homelands Selena Uibo, the agreement is the largest remote housing investment in the Territory’s history.
The agreement commits the Federal and Territory governments as well as all four NT Land Councils and Aboriginal Housing NT to work together to improve existing housing and build houses that are culturally appropriate and meet the climate challenges of the Northern Territory.
It aims to build up to 2700 new homes across the Territory in the next decade, which will halve overcrowding, thus aligning with the National Closing the Gap targets with improvements in health, education and community safety, as well as opportunities for economic growth across the Territory.
Federation Funding Agreements between the NT and the Commonwealth will be informed by the agreement, and will include better repairs and maintenance in remote community housing and improvements and infrastructure upgrades in homelands.
Minister Burney said the housing agreement was designed to tackle the problem of overcrowding in First Nations communities in the Northern Territory.
“We know that overcrowding leads to poorer outcomes in terms of health, education and safety,” she said. “If we invest in better housing, we will get better outcomes across the board.
“This partnership with the Northern Territory Government, Aboriginal Housing NT and Aboriginal Land Councils is vital to successfully delivering homes for more communities across the NT.
“This is about a new way of doing things – in genuine partnership with communities and land councils to create a better remote housing system.”
Minister Uibo said the Territory Government already had overseen sweeping changes to the quality and number of homes in every remote community across the Territory.
“We know that this has made a positive impact on the lives of many thousands of Aboriginal people, and this investment will not only yield more homes but will also unleash a pipeline of construction over the next 10 years that boosts our Aboriginal workforce and benefits businesses across the Territory,” she said.
“This partnership agreement marks an unprecedented investment by both Territory and Commonwealth governments, and commitment to community consultation in planning, design and building works through Local Decision Making.
“Since Territory Labor came to government in 2016, our housing tally is nearing 4000 homes and now we are creating more homes, more work and more training opportunities with this $4 billion investment that will go straight into the pockets of Territorians.”
