The Northern Territory government has announced a sweeping review into Aboriginal town camps on the same day an ongoing parliamentary inquiry held its second public hearing into largely the same topic.
On Monday morning the inquiry heard a number of submissions revealing a convoluted, inconsistent, and overly bureaucratic system governing the maintenance of town camps under a variety of different agreements.
The government’s move has been branded a stunt by opposition members and town camp representatives, noting the review – which the government is putting out to tender – has a six-month deadline when the Northern Territory election is just four months away.
The NT minster for housing and local government, Bess Price, announced the “comprehensive and inclusive review” on Monday morning.
“From listening to the town camp residents and other stakeholders I have been hearing a lot of frustration,” Price said. “We know that town camp residents and leaseholders are struggling with a multitude of challenges that impact their living conditions.”
The review will examine a number of aspects including lease arrangements, service delivery, housing, legislation, and the challenges and opportunities specific to each town camp. It will be coordinated by the Department of Local Government and Community Services, which will assume administrative responsibility for all 43 town camps.
Robyn Lambley, the CLP-turned-independent member for Araluen, suggested the six-month timeframe made it a stunt.
“That’s just ridiculous, and completely disingenuous,” Lambley said, adding that people who lived on town camps were being “deliberately misled”.
She said the government was under pressure over town camps after three Aboriginal communities sought legal action, and amid the public accounts committee inquiry. Lambley is chair of the committee.
“They’ve been put in a corner. This is the 11th hour in terms of the imminent election and they have to act,” she said.
She said the announcement was designed probably to “mute” and “upstage” what the committee was doing.
“The government has chosen not to participate on the public accounts committee,” she said. “This is a standard part of any Westminster system, the public accounts committee, and the fact they’re not participating at all is outrageous.”
She earlier told local radio public housing wasn’t “politically sexy” and was at the bottom of the list, but “it shouldn’t be, because I think it’s at the root of all our social problems: overcrowding, domestic violence, child abuse, a range of health problems associated with a lack of adequate, well-maintained housing”.
Representatives of town camps and service providers have reported a system mired in red tape, with residents sometimes waiting for months to have essential items such as an oven or air-conditioning unit repaired.
Sally Langton, the chief executive of the Central Australian Affordable Housing Company (CAAHC) said when her organisation had the tenancy management contract for the Alice Springs town camps, tenants would contact CAACH to get maintenance order organised. “And then it would kind of just disappear,” she told the inquiry.
CAACH would chase the public housing department but receive no response, she said.
“There was this kind of system where everything was just lost.”
Walter Shaw, the chief executive of Tangentyere Council, supported a community housing model where all management and maintenance contracts were under one umbrella, and said such a structure should involve representatives of all town camps to empower residents.
Callum Mathison, the chief executive of the Ingkerreke Commercial organisation which provides repair and maintenance services to the Alice Springs town camps, said such a model would have to have total transparency to ensure value for money.
The committee also heard from the head of the Aboriginal Development Foundation, Bernard Valladian.
The ADF holds the lease to three Darwin town camps including One Mile Dam, a small and impoverished community on the doorstep of the CDB. Most of the camps houses are in disrepair, and several have no electricity or running water.
Valladian said his organisation had received no funding since the disbanding of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission in 2005. Tenancy management and maintenance for the camps was conducted by Yilli Rreung Housing Corporation financed by government and rental receipts from tenants.
Yilli Rreung receives $3,166 from the NT government for each house on the town camps it manages, not including costs for municipal and essential services or NT Jobs package funding.
“This government spend does not fully cover all costs and additional costs are drawn from rent and income from projects,” it said in its written submission.
No new houses have been built in a Darwin town camp in more than a decade, and Yili Rreung said it was often called out make major repairs on age-related issues like plumbing, which used a significant portion of its repair and maintenance budget. It called for a Darwin town camp housing renewal funding package.
The hearing continued on Monday afternoon, and the committee is expected to report on its findings next month.
