Swirling bulldust: recent developments in the remote housing fiasco

Or, if there were a sympathy in choice, War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it, Making it momentary as a sound, Swift as a shadow, short as any dream; Brief as the lightning in the collied night, That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth, And ere a man hath power to say ‘Behold!’ The jaws of darkness do devour it up: So quick bright things come to confusion.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act One

On 19 June 2018, The Brisbane Times reported (link here) that

Mayors from across Australia have taken the Turnbull government to task for failing to stump up cash for housing in remote Indigenous communities.

…"Refusal to provide funding will have catastrophic impacts on the social, educational and health outcomes including increased mental health and family violence in these communities."

Mr Lacey said about 10 per cent of Palm Island residents were on the waitlist for a home. "There's overcrowding, you don't need to be Einstein to work it all out," he said.

Mr Lacey said funding provided by the Queensland and federal governments over the past decade fell short of the demands of a growing population.

On 9 August 2018 the ABC News ran a report by Felicity James: ‘Arnhem Land community awaits housing rebuild three years after Cyclone Lam destruction,’ (link here ).

On 25 August, the ABC News in WA ran a story “WA remote families left in limbo as Ministers trade insults over housing cash’ (link here). That report quoted Federal Indigenous Affairs Minster Scullion as stating:

The only thing affecting progress on reaching a deal in Western Australia is Peter Tinley’s racist approach to Aboriginal people and his willingness to play petty politics with their homes and their lives.

On 29 August in Perth Bill Shorten and Mark McGowan fronted the media in Perth (link here). The following exchange took place:

JOURNALIST: Thank you. If I could just ask do you think that Tony Abbott is the right man for the Indigenous envoy role?

SHORTEN: I think I will rely on Western Australia's Senator Pat Dodson and quote him, or requote him. He said First Australians have asked for a voice and they got Tony Abbott; a clear disappointment. 

Listen, he is clearly interested in Indigenous affairs but while he and Mr Turnbull were in power there were a lot of cuts to services. I think if he is going to be a fair dinkum envoy for Indigenous Australia go and convince Mr Morrison, who was the Treasurer who wouldn't properly fund remote housing, I think Mr Morrison and Mr Abbott, if they want a reset on treating First Australians with some degree of decency, Mr Abbott and Mr Morrison need to reverse their cuts to remote housing (emphasis added).

On 30 August, Perth Now ran a story headed ‘Remote housing feud descends to insults’ (link here).  

It is worth reading both the ABC and Perth News reports in full.

So what are the facts?

The Commonwealth spent $540m over each of the past ten years in supporting the construction and upgrades of remote housing, primarily in WA, NT, SA and Queensland. This was delivered through the ten year National Partnership on Remote Indigenous Housing established in 2008, and which ended in June 2018. The Government delayed announcing its intentions in relation to the renewal of the National Partnership until December 2017, when departmental officials informed the states that the National Partnership would not be renewed, and instead, transitional bilateral funding agreements would be negotiated which would require matching state contributions.

My February 2018 Inside Story article “Tactics versus strategy in Indigenous housing (link here) lays out the extent of housing need in remote Australia, the rationale for continuing Commonwealth involvement and investment, and explores the scope for new innovative approaches to addressing the quite huge needs which exist and are getting larger.

Minister Scullion denied that the Commonwealth was walking away from remote housing, but the figures speak for themselves. In the NT, where the incoming Labor Government has already committed to a ten year billion dollar investment in remote housing before its election in 2017, the Commonwealth agreed to provide $110m over five years. In WA, the Commonwealth is offering $60m over three years. In SA and Qld, consistent with the deliberate lack of transparency from the Commonwealth, we do not know what is being offered, and if it has been finalised. But is seems highly unlikely that it exceeds the funding made available to the NT which comprises around half the remote hosing need. On this basis, the Commonwealth appears to have made cuts in excess of $250m per annum to its longstanding contribution to remote housing, savings which will rise in quantum over time. If we look forward ten years, thus comparing a renewal of NPARIH with actual funding commitments made for 2019-2018, the Governments decision appears to involve cuts of around $4bn over the ten year forward estimates.

In the light of funding cuts of this magnitude directed at the most disadvantaged citizens in the nation, the tactics of Minister Scullion in resorting to personal abuse and allegations of racism directed at his political opponents should be seen for what it is: a hypocritical attempt to divert attention from the Commonwealth’s unilateral funding cuts and to reframe the issue as just another fight between the federal government and the states over funding. The reality is that the Commonwealth took the decision to cut remote funding because they wished to minimise the apparent size of the deficit over the coming decade in their perpetual quest to portray themselves as competent economic managers. The remote housing funding was an easy target, because it is channelled through the states, there is no national peak body for indigenous housing, and Indigenous voices which do speak out are rarely taken seriously in the broader electorate. In short, the Government did it because it could.

The costs will be borne primarily by remote Indigenous citizens. Women and children will be particularly vulnerable. The impacts will include poor health, domestic violence, poor educational outcomes, mental health issues, suicide, alcohol and drug abuse, to name but a few.

In all these circumstances the preparedness of Minister Scullion to allege racism on the part of Western Australian Ministers Wyatt (links here and here) and Tinley are irredeemable.

The comments by Bill Shorten are the clearest signal yet that an incoming Federal Labor Government will reverse the LNP cuts to remote housing if they are returned to office. The arguments in favour of doing so are incontrovertible, both in terms of addressing deep disadvantage in the Australian community, but also in terms of minimising future social costs on remote citizens and economic costs on taxpayers.

Of course, there is a significant difference between calling on the Government to reverse a cut, and committing to reverse the cut if and when you are returned to the government benches.

Let’s hope that Labor understands that addressing remote housing is not just an opportunity to criticize the Government in the lead up to the next election, but will be an imperative if they are returned to Government and wish to make any inroads in reducing the increasing levels of social and economic dysfunction across remote Australia over the coming decade. The surest way to signal that they do understand this would be to make an unequivocal commitment to reversing the current Government’s cuts to remote housing in full.