A strategically important remote housing initiative

 

 

Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful

Measure for Measure Act three, Scene one.

 

The Commonwealth and NT Governments will today announce a major investment in remote housing. Prime Minister Albanese was interviewed on ABC radio (link here) and had this to say:

 

DAVID LIPSON, HOST: G'day. Welcome to AM. I'm David Lipson coming to you from Gadigal Land in Sydney. The Prime Minister is today unveiling a major boost to Indigenous housing in the Northern Territory. Along with the NT Government, $4 billion will be spent on the construction of 2,700 new homes over ten years. The aim is to halve overcrowding in Indigenous homes. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joins me now. PM, thanks for being with us here on AM.

 

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. Good to be with you, David.

 

LIPSON: There are 19 Closing the Gap targets. 15 of them aren't on track. Why have you made Indigenous housing a priority?

 

PRIME MINISTER: Because housing is the key to other opportunities in life. If you don't have a secure home over your head, if you have overcrowding, then you will have - not just housing problems - you'll have health problems, you'll have problems with justice issues, inevitably, that come from the tension that come from overcrowded homes and communities, and you'll have difficulty getting education. It's hard to see yourself having a greater opportunity in life if you don't have that security of a roof over your head and in a way that enables you to actually go about the other things that we need to close the gap on.

 

LIPSON: So, will $4 billion be enough to close the gap on Indigenous housing?

 

PRIME MINISTER: Look, it's a major step forward. This is a joint $4 billion announcement. It will go out at $400 million a year over ten years. It will see up to 270 homes being built each and every year. And importantly as well, the nature of how that construction occurs is important, because we're doing it through local Indigenous housing, what it will do is ensure that we can build into the agreements - skills development, apprenticeships, making sure that jobs are created as well. So, it goes hand in hand with the other work that we've done, abolishing the CDP Employment Program, to have real jobs with real wages, providing real opportunities for Indigenous people in remote communities.

 

LIPSON: I note you say up to 270 homes a year. Could it be less?

 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we think that the costings that we've made, essentially, that that is spot on - the funding that is available. But of course, it won't be one size fits all. There'll be some homes that are just for smaller families, but homes that, by and large - it's based upon three bedroom homes, because we know that families in these remote communities tend to have numbers of children.

 

I will add links to the relevant media releases when they are up on the web.

 

The importance of investing in remote housing has long been a focus on this blog, so I was very pleased with the announcement. The Commonwealth Government is to be congratulated both for recognizing the strategic policy importance of housing to addressing so many other challenges (a point the PM made in his comments above) and for locking in the investment for ten years which both provides policy certainty and facilitates the planning that goes hand in hand with effective implementation.

 

The investment is limited to the NT where the Commonwealth has a contingent liability related to some thousands of remote houses due to the fact that the leases are held by the Commonwealth and sub-leased to the NTG. This arose because the NT Land Councils insisted in leasing negotiations that the Commonwealth should hold the leases. This has turned out to be a clever tactic as it has kept the Commonwealth engaged in the NT even while it has stepped back form investing in remote housing in the states of WA, Qld and SA. It is to be hoped that the Commonwealth announcement will put renewed pressure on these states to lift their games.

 

The key challenges for the future with this initiative will include the following issues.

 

Implementation. There are numerous moving parts to delivering infrastructure projects in remote communities, and the NTG has often made heavy going of this aspect fo program delivery. The Commonwealth will need to ensure that it is monitoring progress every step fo the way.

 

The trade-off between new housing and ongoing repairs and maintenance (R&M). The most effective way to manage the total hosing stock in remote communities is to ensure that R&M is undertaken in a timely way. In recent years, it has been apparent that the NTG has not been managing this adequately (or even at all). It will be imperative that the Commonwealth implement oversight systems to ensure this issue is given substantive attention.

 

Essential services infrastructure (water, sewerage, power, and even sealed roads) are crucial components of an effective and safe housing system. These ‘lumpy’ investments are often not prioritized by the NTG, with the result that the existing housing stock is less fit for purpose than it should be. Again, it will be important that the Commonwealth establishes the monitoring systems that identify when there are major gaps in essential services provision. The Commonwealth’s recent Closing the Gap implementation plan identified that work in relation to target 9(b) had stopped. No explanation was offered for this decision. This decision should be revisited, and at the very least an explanation offered.

 

The overarching issue that links each of these three issues is the need for adequate data. Some of it will be administrative in nature (and given the joint nature of the new program, it will be important that the Commonwealth has access to the NTG administrative data as a matter of course. But perhaps more importantly, there is a need for more authoritative data such as was once obtained from the Community Hosing and Infrastructure Survey (CHINS) that was funded and auspiced by ATSIC. It is time this was resuscitated.

 

Finally, it is worth noting the political drivers for this announcement. The NT election is due later this year, and housing is always a core issue in remote communities. At the Commonwealth level, this is the sort of announcement that would usually be included in the May budget. My guess is that the Government is keen to get on the front foot in the Indigenous policy space following the Voice defeat, and this announcement will go someway to doing that. By separating it from the budget, it ensures that the likely focus of the Budget on cost of living issues for middle Australia is not sidelined by an issue which is not front and centre in most Australians’ concerns.

 

To sum up, this is an excellent development from a government that has been struggling to find its feet on Indigenous issues. For the first time in a year, it is looking like it is being proactive and setting the policy agenda on Indigenous issues. However, there will be challenges in rolling out the program, and the Commonwealth will need to set in place an effective oversight function to ensure that’s its investment is rolled out efficiently and that the outcomes delivered are effective in addressing the widespread disadvantage that exists across remote Australia.