Politics just widening the gap
A SURE way to make certain the Prime Minister’s commitment to “close the gap” collapses in a ruinous heap is to keep indigenous kids living in critically overcrowded homes for the next decade.
The Federal and Queensland Governments are at each others’ throats about indigenous housing funding, and not a red cent was committed in Treasurer Scott Morrison’s Budget announcement on Tuesday night.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders will pay the price of politicking and 10 years of overspends on middle management in which $1.7 billion was spent and only 1200 houses were built.
Breaking that down, on figures provided by the State Government, the Commonwealth chipped in $1.126 billion over a decade to the National Partnership on Remote Housing and its predecessor.
It resulted in 1141 new homes being built, working out to almost $1 million per house.
Take a drive out to one of these remote communities and you won’t find sprawling mansions with golden faucets — these are stock standard dwellings, comfortable enough but not luxurious.
The State Government says it has contributed $652.8 million over the same period, and the combined effort has also led to 1500 upgrades, 5000 repair and maintenance jobs, and other bits and pieces like tenancy management services, and employment and education housing facilities.
Mayors from remote indigenous communities across the state convened in Brisbane earlier this week for a Local Government Association of Queensland forum on the issue.
Lockhart River Mayor Wayne Butcher said all his community wanted was an assurance the housing program would not come to a dead stop once its predecessor ends in July.
He wanted the money committed to actually be spent on construction rather than administration fees.
“There’s just too many middle men involved in the process,” he said.
“A standard four-bedroom house for Lockhart would probably be worth about $400,000 but it’s costing $800,000 by the time you get it on the ground.
“You’ve lost 50 per cent along the way before you’ve started digging the first hole.
“It’s not cost-effective, but before we can talk about cost-effectiveness, we’ve got to get a commitment in the Budget.”
Lockhart River has three-bedroom homes with 15 people living in them, and 52 people on the waiting list for housing.
The program also employs seven apprentices trying to get the skills they need to make a real contribution with their lives.
“Same old story, you build people’s hopes up to a certain stage and then you cut the money,” Cr Butcher said.
The problem at hand is political — Labor versus the Coalition with a federal election looming. But it is also economic. How can anybody pretend shelling out $1.126 billion to build 1141 houses is money well spent?
That is no excuse for not making any mention of the desperately needed funding in the Federal Budget.
It could have been included and the feds could have imposed their own, more stringent safeguards on how it was spent.
It would then be up to the State Government to come to the table.
So far there is nothing except a vague threat the Commonwealth could bypass the state and directly fund the councils.
That raises its own issues on safeguarding and what legislation will be needed to make it possible.
In the meantime, families are sleeping on top of each other while we are supposed to be closing the gap on health and education.
Everything starts at home, no matter where you are.