Shared Responsibility Agreements

Shared Responsibility Agreement

Ivanhoe is a remote township in the Murdi Paaki region, the New South Wales COAG trial area. The town has a very hot climate—it averages 61 days over 35oC a year.

This SRA will install evaporative cooling units in 20 Indigenous community controlled houses to improve the health and wellbeing of the whole community and in particular the elderly and young people attending school. Where units are already installed, they will be assessed and if necessary, replaced.

Installation of the units is conditional on tenants signing, or reviewing existing, tenancy agreements. The community will develop a maintenance schedule and commit to an increase in rent to cover maintenance costs. They will also take part in a region-wide study of the benefits of climate control in improving health and lessening anti-social behaviour.

The Australian Government will fund the units, the study and the Healthy Housing Workers (HHWs) who will maintain the units twice yearly. The New South Wales Government will contract the regional Indigenous housing organisation to manage the funding, supervise and train the HHWs, assist with the maintenance schedule and provide technical support to the project. The NSW Government will undertake health checks to monitor wellbeing improvements of residents.

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Key Facts

Remote town in far western New South Wales, around 210 km from Hay

Population:

Around 70 Indigenous residents

Focus of the SRA:

Improved living conditions

What the SRA provides:

Evaporative cooling units

ICC:

Bourke

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