Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. What is the government doing to improve living conditions in the Alice Springs town camps?

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Solomon for his question. I would say all members of this House, but the member for Solomon and the member for the Lingiari particularly, understand just how significant the need is in many remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. That is why we have persevered in the Alice Springs town camps and got the deal that has been long needed to make a start on improving the living conditions for Indigenous people who live in those town camps.

Work has now started in these town camps but we do have an enormous amount to do as we work with local Aboriginal people to confront what remains one of the most disadvantaged places in our country. Just last Monday both the member for Lingiari and I were in Alice Springs and we went to one of the town camps, Larapinta Valley. We visited one of the building sites for the new housing that has now started in that town camp and we were able to see the work that is underway. We met the woman and some of the children who are going to be moving into this house. They are very pleased because at the moment they are living next door in very cramped and overcrowded conditions—there are two adults with six children living there—and they are very much looking forward to being able to move into their new home.

One of the very important parts of this task that we have embarked on is that we have set ourselves and the contractors the requirement that there will be local Aboriginal employment. We were able to meet with 12 of the Aboriginal men who are now engaged in building these homes in the town camps. They have been trained as trade assistants and they are now working on site. It felt like 40 degrees in the shade; nevertheless, people were out there starting to get the formwork ready for these new houses. I think everybody here would recognise just how important it is that we have local people engaged in getting a job and holding down a job. It was significant to see the pride already being taken by the people who are employed to build these houses. All of us know and they now know just how critical it is for parents to have a job, to go out each day and to be the role models that they want to be for their children. What we want to do is see more and more Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory getting jobs as part of our housing program.

Across all of the camps in Alice Springs now all of the clean up and the ‘fix and make safe’ work has been completed. Although it may not seem a big deal for everybody in this chamber, one of the things that has also been achieved is that we are now starting a regular weekly rubbish collection. Wheelie bins have been delivered and a normal weekly rubbish collection will now start. The other works completed, which are very significant, are the installation of temporary accommodation facilities, sewer inspections, site surveys, geotechnical testing—all of this work is now well and truly completed. Additional family support programs, alcohol abuse programs and managed accommodation for visitors to the town are also underway.

One of the other very significant developments at one of the town camps, Ilpeye Ilpeye, is that as a result of the changed tenure arrangements we are now able to sit down, as we did on Monday with the local residents, and talk about the possibility of homeownership. These are very significant changes for the residents of Ilpeye Ilpeye and, although it is a big challenge for all of us, we are able to do so because of the trust that we have in each other. There is an enormous amount more to be done in the Alice Springs area, particularly in these town camps, but with the goodwill that is now very much evident between the residents, both levels of government and the town council we are able to get on with the job that has been a very long time coming.