Housing in remote Aboriginal communities
Friday, February 22nd, 2008Little has been mentioned on the blogosphere about the Australian government’s approach to housing in remote Aboriginal communities. We want to get a conversation going, so this is a start 
In Kevin Rudd’s apology speech on the 13th Feb, he acknowledged that “a business as usual approach towards Indigenous Australians is not working”. He insisted that he would like the new parliament to allow flexible, tailored and local approaches to achieve commonly agreed national objectives. On the subject of housing, he made the proposition for:
… a joint policy commission, to be led by the Leader of the Opposition and me, with a mandate to develop and implement—to begin with—an effective housing strategy for remote communities over the next five years. It will be consistent with the government’s policy framework, a new partnership for closing the gap.
A week after this announcement (i.e. yesterday), Kevin Rudd visited a remote NSW Aboriginal community — without the opposition leader Brendan Nelson (who rejected an invitation to join Kevin Rudd, claiming that the visit was a media stunt) — to begin the development of the government’s new housing strategy.
Federal Housing and Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin also announced that the government will spend an additional $20 million in 2008 on upgrading housing in remote Aboriginal communities in the NT.
“[It’s] particularly addressed to upgrades to existing houses,” she told the ABC. “This money is aimed to fix waterproofing wet areas, fixing kitchens, replacing gutters and cleaning out rainwater tanks.”
“We really do need to continue the very important work to fix houses so they’re more appropriate and healthier for Indigenous people.”
The Age reports that Jennt Macklin also told the National Housing Conference her government supported Aboriginal aspirations for home ownership. The Labor government has confirmed they will continue to allow traditional owners to obtain a 99-year lease.
The Australian reported that senior Labor Indigenous leader Warren Mundine maintains that home ownership by traditional owners is essential to lifting Aboriginal people out of poverty. Other Indigenous leaders disagree — Tom Calma, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, maintains that Aboriginal people need time to catch up in other areas of society first.
The Sydney Morning Herald last Saturday (16 Feb) published a piece that suggested this project must start with an understanding of what the concept of home means:
If the bipartisan commission on indigenous disadvantage is achieve its first goal and tackle decrepit and overcrowded housing in a sustainable way, it will have to do more than build new homes in remote and regional communities. It will have to teach indigenous people to build them and not presume to know where they want them.
More information
- [info] Housing resources - ANTaR
- [info] Healthhabitat - “Healthabitat aims at improving people’s living environment and consequently their health. The work has focused on Australian indigenous people where the need has been greatest. The principles and practical techniques extend from immediate fix work of urgent faults in housing through to research and development projects that can contribute to longer term change.”
