$4bn remote housing partnership agreement signed in the Northern Territory

Dignitaries and TOs have gathered at a remote Tiwi community to sign a landmark $4bn remote housing agreement pledging to halve overcrowding in Aboriginal communities over the next decade.

NLC chair Matthew Ryan, TLC chair Leslie Tungatalum, CLC chair Matthew Palmer, ALC chair Cherelle Wurrawilya, Aboriginal Housing NT chief executive Skye Thompson, NT Remote Housing Minister Selena Uibo and federal Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney signed the $4bn agreement at Milikapiti on Thursday.

A $4bn remote housing agreement pledging to halve overcrowding in Aboriginal communities was signed on the Tiwi Islands, marking the largest remote housing investment in the Northern Territory’s history.

The 10-year remote housing partnership agreement was signed on Thursday by federal and Territory governments, all four NT Land Councils and Aboriginal Housing NT, at the remote community of Milikapiti.

Milikapiti residents Jacinta Bennett and Dominic Brown will move into their newly built home next week.

Local residents Jacinta Bennett and Dominic Brown said overcrowding was “suffocating” their family, with nine people aged two to 70 squeezed into a three-bedroom home.

“Our kids complain,” Ms Bennett said. “There’s three or four in the room and they don’t like that, so sometimes they’ll get the mattress and sleep in the lounge room because they feel overcrowded, they don’t have their own space in there.”

The family will next week move into one of seven newly built homes in Milikapiti, constructed under the previous remote housing agreement.

Ms Bennett said it had taken at least 15 years to be approved for a larger new home, and many in the community were still waiting.

“It is frustrating, but we were one of the lucky ones,” she said. “I can’t stop smiling, the kids were screaming the house down – we’re over the moon.”

Milikapiti cousins Murray Daniels and Emilio Moreen helped to construct the new homes in their community after being hired by NT company DT Hobbs.

Milikapiti man Emilio Moreen, 23, was hired by Territory company DT Hobbs to help construct the community’s new homes, as well as upgrade 22 others.

He said he hoped for more work in the future.

“It was my first time doing construction and induction, building houses, I love it,” he said.

The remote housing pact commits to building 2700 new homes across the Territory’s 73 communities.

As part of the joint federal and Territory funding agreement, $240m will also go to housing, upgrades and essential infrastructure in homelands.

Dancing at the signing ceremony at Milikapiti.

At Thursday’s signing ceremony Northern Land Council chair Matthew Ryan said homes must be built in both communities and homelands, with some traditional owners in the crowd repeating calls for more homelands investment.

Mr Ryan said it was important to build the “right housing” to tackle overcrowding and help eliminate damning rates of preventable diseases, such as rheumatic heart disease.

Last week NT estimates heard pressure to meet previous funding deadlines meant some remote housing was not built in culturally or environmentally appropriate ways.

Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney said the new agreement would be a true partnership between governments and communities, “very, very focused” on environmental health and First Nations-led design.

“The metric for success is very simple: people have better life outcomes,” she said.

“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experienced the worst overcrowding and the worst housing conditions of anyone in this country, adequate housing without overcrowding is fundamental to health, to education and safety.”

“(This agreement) is ambitious, it is doable, and it’s what’s absolutely needed in the Northern Territory.”