First Nations mayors from across Queensland, pictured at the recent Indigenous Leaders Forum in Yarrabah, will descend on Canberra this week asking a funding commitment similar to the $4 billion deal made with Northern Territory government to tackle the local social housing crisis. Photo: Facebook (Local Government Association of Queensland).
The message from the state’s 17 Indigenous councils will be impossible to misunderstand when they head to Canberra this week: remote social housing is at breaking point.
A cohort of local government leaders will converge on the nation’s capital to meet with Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Housing Julie Collins to plead for the current remote housing crisis to be taken seriously, and to ask for a funding commitment similar to the $4 billion deal the government made with its Northern Territory counterpart in March.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a “landmark joint $4 billion dollar investment for housing in remote communities across the Northern Territory” which will deliver 2,700 new homes over a 10-year period.
A similar deal is yet to be struck between the federal and Queensland governments, despite the remote housing situation in places like Cape York arguably as dire as it is across the border.
While the State Government is responsible for social housing, the delivery of infrastructure is largely reliant on the federal coffers.
One of the loudest critics of how both governments have managed the delivery process has been Lockhart River Aboriginal Shire Council Mayor Wayne Butcher, who said he believed neither had a real interest in Queensland’s remote housing crisis.
“Remote Indigenous housing in Queensland has definitely been ignored for way too long,” he said.
“Overcrowding in our respective Indigenous communities throughout Queensland will continue to disadvantage our most vulnerable peoples.
“Two-bedroom houses aren’t built for 11 people to live in, including a whole family of four living in one bedroom.
“Therefore, we continue to count the statistics of failure through things like lesser life expectancy, lower educational outcomes.”
Securing adequate funding for remote social housing was a key agenda item at the recent Indigenous Leaders Forum in Yarrabah, with Local Government Association of Queensland chief executive officer Alison Smith saying the overcrowding situation had reached “critical levels” in many communities.
“A lack of housing has been consistently cited as a key concern across Queensland’s remote and discrete First Nations communities,” she said.
“Funding and on-ground delivery of additional, well designed, culturally appropriate housing for First Nations people is critical to support improved health, education … youth suicide and youth justice outcomes.”
Mayor Butcher said he was confident his colleagues would ensure their message would be heard in Canberra, but added the same message had been ignored for more than a decade.
“Queensland Indigenous shires have been lobbying the Federal Government for the past 10 years … and all the discussing really led to nothing,” he said.
“So here we go again, back to talk to Canberra, knowing the NT has got $4 billion and nothing for Queensland.”
Alison Smith, head of the peak body for Queensland councils, says social housing overcrowding in remote communities has reached “critical levels”. Photo: Facebook (Local Government Association of Queensland).
