Housing

Good housing is critical to progress in other areas — protecting children, getting them to school, giving them a place to study, improving their health and hygiene.

For parents, a decent house supports everyday norms like going to work each day.

Providing more houses in Territory communities and ensuring they last is a top-order priority for the Australian Government.

What needs improving?

Decades of neglect and poor legislative and regulatory requirements resulted in a serious shortage of decent houses in remote Territory communities. Overcoming this backlog will be a long-term task, but substantial progress is being made.

What is being done?

The Australian Government is making a $1.7 billion investment in remote housing in the Northern Territory. By the end of 2013 the Government will have delivered 900 new houses and more than 2900 rebuilds and refurbishments across the Territory. The target for Indigenous employment in the housing program is being exceeded.

The Alice Springs Transformation Plan is working with communities to make the town camps normal suburbs with appropriate infrastructure and services. Construction of 85 new houses is under way, along with improvements to around 200 existing houses.

Reforms to land tenure are being pursued to support the expansion of public and social housing, together with stronger property and tenancy management.

The Government currently holds five-year leases over 64 communities under the NTER. These leases have provided short-term security of tenure to underpin government investment and housing improvements. All five-year leases will end in 2012, and will not be renewed. The Government is working to replace them with voluntary leasing arrangements, including whole-of-township leases that open the way for private home ownership

Directions for the future?

The Australian Government is committed to major and sustainable housing improvements:

• progressively upgrading the quality of social housing stock in communities
• increasing the numbers of houses
• upgrading the infrastructure supporting housing.

It also wants to change how housing is managed so Indigenous tenants have the same rights and responsibilities as other public housing tenants. Social housing managed by government or community housing providers will require secure tenure.

The Government is exploring options to encourage more private home ownership as well as community sector involvement in social housing across the Northern Territory.

The Government wants to hear from local people how housing can be further improved.