Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to make a contribution to this debate on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2020-2021 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2020-2021. It's an opportunity for me to examine in detail an ongoing failure in public policy in this country—a failure of successive governments, not just the current government: the failure of governments to adequately address and fund the overwhelming housing needs of First Nations Australians across the country, but I am referring in particular to my own electorate of Lingiari. I'm not quite sure as to why it is, but it seems that successive governments have failed to understand or acknowledge the costs involved in not addressing the overwhelming housing need. I look at health costs in particular.

The relationship between overcrowded, unsafe and inadequate housing and chronic disease and mortality rates in First Nations households is very well documented. As an example, it is clear there is a direct relationship and a correlation between overcrowded housing and the high incidence of scabies and rheumatic heart disease in many remote communities. This means, of course, there's an extremely high cost on the health system, but it also means that, sadly, the lives of Aboriginal Australians in my own electorate of Lingiari in the Northern Territory are being undermined, and that their life expectancy diminishes significantly. The relationship between that and overcrowded, inadequate and unsafe housing is there for all to see.

I was in Barunga—which is in the Northern Territory in my electorate of Lingiari, about 90 kilometres south-east of Katherine—only a week or so ago to observe new houses being built. It's great that there are new houses being built, but there was no kerbing and guttering and no drainage. As a consequence the houses were being flooded. That's poor planning, clearly, but it goes to inadequate resourcing of the housing needs of that particular community. It's stressed by perennial flooding and the lack of stormwater abatement.

It's clear that governments have been blind to this relationship between poor, overcrowded and unsafe housing and the costs involved in areas such as health. There's a lot of duck-shoving between the various governments. Although the current government pledged $550 million over five years for Aboriginal housing in the Northern Territory in its 2018 budget, matched by a similar contribution from the Northern Territory government, frankly it's clearly insufficient. We know that it's the intention of the Morrison government to withdraw from the field post this investment. That's clearly not good enough. The poor housing that exists in the electorate of Lingiari is largely a legacy from when the Commonwealth administered the Northern Territory prior to 1978. I remember vividly that in that period there were people still living in tin shacks—in some places, they still are. We've not done sufficient work to address the appalling housing needs.

It's time that this government spent what is required to deal with the historical legacy of inadequate, inappropriate and unsafe housing, and the disadvantage that it perpetuates. It is a federal responsibility, in my view, and I know that the Commonwealth government has been progressively withdrawing from these responsibilities. I would argue that the 1967 referendum gave the federal government a particular responsibility and that this government is withdrawing from it.

Frankly, the state governments, and in my case in particular the Northern Territory government, they have insufficient resources to address the long-term housing needs and even the short-term housing needs in reality. Only this year some of you will have read the very good book that Henry Reynolds has written about the legacies of past conflicts since James Cook arrived in this country. He talks about the frontier wars and all that happened to First Nations people across this nation. It's an interesting document, because, when you reflect on it, you can see how the disadvantage occurred and how people's rights were ignored. I would argue that, over the decades and the centuries, there's been a high level of institutionalised racism existing in this country, and it still exists, because we have yet to come to terms with our obligations to make sure that our First Nations people have the rights they properly deserve, one of which is housing. Yet we have failed to do it. We know what we need. As I've explained, overcrowded, unsafe and inadequate housing has a direct relationship with better health outcomes, better education outcomes and so on. Of course, it's hard to argue because the facts are there. This dreadful coronavirus this provides us with additional evidence as to why we need to have appropriate housing. It becomes more important that we, in this place and across this nation, resolve this vexed issue. Lockdowns and other mechanisms, like people isolating in their communities, have been very effective, but one of the problems is—and it's very clear in the way in which some chronic diseases exist in many remote communities—the impact of overcrowding. If, God forbid, this virus got into some remote communities, its direct impact as a result of overcrowding would be just awful. This is not an issue which shouldn't be addressed; it's an issue which people don't seem to want to address in an appropriate way. When we think about it, we do have an obligation here to do these things. We have international obligations. We have signed covenants, but we seem to ignore them and our responsibilities that arise from them when it comes to addressing these very important issues.

Compared with other Australians, research in 2019 shows us that across the country First Nations Australians were half as likely to own their own home, with or without a mortgage; 10 times as likely to live in social housing; three times as likely to live in overcrowded dwellings; and nine times as likely to require access to specialist homeless services. In remote communities, the situation is even more dire. If you live in a remote community, you're three times as likely to live in social housing, in First Nations communities, as you would be in non-remote communities.

In 2014, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey collected information on basic types of household facilities that are considered important for a healthy living environment and on where the household dwelling had major structural problems. In 2014-15, 29 per cent of First Nations Australians were living in dwellings with major structural problems. In the same period, 15 per cent of First Nations Australians were living in households in which at least one basic facility required for a healthy living environment was not available or did not work. Nearly one-in-five First Nations Australians were living in houses that did not meet acceptable standards. This evidence is before us. If you are a First Nations person living in a remote community, the likelihood of major structural problems is 37 per cent compared with 27 per cent for those living in non-remote communities; lacking basic household facilities—27 per cent compared with 11 per cent; or did not meet acceptable standards—31 per cent compared with 16 per cent. We have the capacity within us here to address these problems. We need to understand the nature of them, and I don't think, as much as we might express good intent, that we're prepared to commit ourselves to addressing what is a really overwhelming need.

My office has been working with the Parliamentary Library to try and update data on how many First Nations houses are needed across this country to address the current shortfall, in terms of both overcrowding and also inadequacy. Sadly, this data is not easily assembled, and nobody has known the real answer, including from a major government review in 2017. So the work which the library has been doing has been quite revealing. That research tells us that up to 76,000 additional dwellings are required across this country to address the housing needs of First Nations Australians. In the Northern Territory alone, that figure is about 21,000, and the requirement is for an expenditure of around $5 billion. As I said, there has been a commitment from this government in its 2018-19 budget of $550 million. There has been a matching commitment from the Northern Territory government of $550 million. But it's not enough. It's not even addressing the replacement costs. It's not addressing the population growth or keeping pace with the population growth This is a really significant issue. Between 2009 and 2016, the First Nations population across the Northern Territory grew by 10.1 per cent or thereabouts. We haven't seen a commensurate increase in the number of bedrooms that are required to house that population, let alone sufficient funding for the replacement of inadequate and inappropriate housing.

I do want to commend the work which is being done by Aboriginal community based organisations in the Northern Territory and elsewhere and by the community sector for shining a light on this inadequacy. We do have a responsibility here. I know that the amount of money we're talking about is eye-watering, but we've got to find ways to deal with it. Maybe what we've got to be talking about is different ways of financing. There are possible alternative ways of financing, but it appears to me that governments haven't accepted the challenge of what that might look like and then gone to the money in the private sector to see if there can't be a partnering in the development of this infrastructure in an appropriate way that meets this housing need. It's important that we here understand the fatal impact of not addressing that need. It's clear to those who have any knowledge, understanding or experience of remote Aboriginal community health, for example, that housing is such a driver. I said that at the outset of this contribution. Housing is such a driver of better health outcomes, yet we're not seeing the resources being put into housing, let alone into primary health care services. Not enough has been put in there, and not enough is understood about the relationship between health and housing and the prevention strategies that can be implemented by investing in housing.

We do have a responsibility here, and it's time we accepted that responsibility. I'm not saying this to be critical just of the government. It's a matter for the parliament and it's a matter for successive governments. Whatever the next government might look like—hopefully, it's a Labor government—they'll be stuck with the same problem. It's going to require a commitment, it's going to require an understanding and it's going to require partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people right across this country in a way we haven't seen previously. Not only will it address issues to do with housing in the real sense but it will provide opportunities for business and employment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people right across this nation. It's an opportunity which can't be missed, but it's an opportunity which, at this moment, has been missed.

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