Rent for government employee housing jumps to $105 a week

Rent for government employee housing has been hiked by 25 per cent in a move that will impact budgets for thousands of remote frontline workers in the Northern Territory.

Rent for government employee housing has been hiked by 25 per cent in a move that will impact budgets for thousands of teachers, healthcare workers and police in the Northern Territory.

A government gazette on Friday announced rent for government employee housing would increase to $105 a week per bedroom, up from $84.

The rent increase will apply to 1397 homes across the NT, which are offered to staff in a range of departments including police and emergency services, education, health, and parks.

In most cases the extra cost will fall on the agencies – government employee housing is provided free to staff in eligible locations, with the employing agency required to pay rent to the Housing Department.

The hike could impact about 96 Parks and Wildlife employees directly, who receive only a partial subsidy to their rent given their proximity to towns.

Rents for government employee housing have jumped by 25 per cent.

A government spokesman said the rent increase would have “no impact” on government employees living in remote communities.

“Government staff working in remote communities provide essential services and support and we know how critical it is to attract and retain the right people including police, nurses, teachers, child protection workers and community sport officers,” he said.

Opposition Leader Selena Uibo said the move would make recruitment more difficult.

“It is extremely concerning that Lia Finocchiaro and the CLP are hiking up the rent of our police, healthcare workers and teachers by 25 per cent,” she said.

“In a time when cost of living is at its worst we should be doing more to incentivise professionals to work across the Territory – not less.

“With these cuts to the public service the CLP are making it tougher to recruit and retain nurses, teachers, police and other essential services.”

As of May this year, the government also held private head leases for 459 government employee homes in order to meet demand.

The 2017-18 budget allocated $200m over nine years to build more government employee housing to include options for locally recruited remote NT government employees.

So far 43 new homes have been built, and 113 more are planned.

Originally published as Rent for government employee housing jumps to $105 a week