Linda Burney ‘must act on housing crisis case study’

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney is being urged to intervene directly to get a family off a concrete slab they have for years called home and into appropriate accommodation.

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney is being urged to intervene directly to get a family off a concrete slab they have for years called home and into appropriate accommodation.

It follows The Australian on Tuesday revealing the third world living conditions of Kate Pitjara and her family, who travelled 230km to Alice Springs from the Utopia town camp in order for Ms Pitjara’s niece, Miranda Pepperill, to receive dialysis.

The family, which includes more than half a dozen children, have for years been living under a tarpaulin on a concrete slab ­between two town camps in the absence of appropriate housing.

More than 1400 people are waiting for public housing spots in Alice Springs, with the average wait time being between six and eight years.

Liberal senator Kerrynne Liddle, who was born and raised in Alice Springs, wrote to Ms Burney after visiting the family last week.

“Whatever the excuses or reasons, it resulted in this family and their children enduring at least two years of the consequences of bad policy implementation with very likely deteriorating health and wellbeing,” she wrote.

“You could do well to use this family’s terrible and cruel predicament as a case study to inform ­future responses – especially in light of the hundreds of millions in financial and resource investment you are intending to inject into Central Australia.”

A spokesman for Ms Burney said the minister had been in contact with Senator Liddle regarding the family.

He confirmed Ms Burney was in contact with her Northern Territory counterparts about the matter.

“The minister has been in contact with Senator Liddle regarding the family. We are working with the Northern Territory government to find ways to assist (them),” the spokesman said.

A spokesman from the NT ­Department of Territory Families, Housing and Communities refused to confirm if any action had been taken regarding the family because of “privacy” considerations.

Opposition spokesman for ­Indigenous Australians Julian Leeser urged the Albanese government to “act on this now”. “I’m deeply concerned about the disconnect between Canberra and what is happening on the ground,” he said.

“If you can’t fix a situation for a family that was on the front page of a national newspaper and raised by a senator, what hope is there for the hundreds of families who have no such platform?”

However, Mr Leeser said the circumstance was a “shared ­national failure” across governments and through many years.

“The best thing the Prime Minister can do is to get out of Can­berra and see many of these regional communities himself,” he said.

Senator Liddle urged Ms Burney to not only address the situation of Ms Pitjara and her family, but scrutinise how money was being spent in the NT.

“There needs to be greater reference in agreements for monitoring ­expenditure consistent with funding guidelines and funding only those organisations who have demonstrated transparency and accountability in their ­approach to governance,” Senator Liddle said.

It comes ahead of the government revealing details of how it will allocate $250m announced by Anthony Albanese in conjunction with the NT government’s ­reinstatement of alcohol bans earlier this year.

The NT opposition has been pushing for a parliamentary committee to be set up in the territory to oversee how the $250m will be spent, and the rolling out of broader funding to ­address Indigenous disadvantage.