Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I will ask the minister to address it in the consideration before we finish with these bills, rather than have him take it on notice. I started there, but the major line of questioning I want to raise with the minister is the investment in housing and infrastructure and the amount of money that is going to be applied. Given what has occurred in the last couple of years, I saw that the minister might be seeking to use some of the funds out of that. That is, if you like, the secondary question.

I will start with the primary question. It really goes to the overall housing issue, which is what we are considering: the intervention in land to facilitate housing. One of the concerns expressed about the intervention is that there is a lot of focus on paying for officials, four-wheel driving lessons and all of those things which are necessary when moving people into the communities. I think we have already seen that the cost of the intervention has grown significantly. I think that is not unexpected. You cannot do things in remote areas without it being costly.

I want to ask a question about the investment in housing. The minister used the figure of $1.6 billion for Indigenous housing. I take it he means that that is the total, not new money. In fact, the new money in the budget last year was about $300 million over four years, in my understanding. So we are talking about an additional $300 million over four years to overcome what everyone accepts is the crisis in housing that has occurred under the previous allocation. It seems to me that all we are saying is that there is $300 million in new money over four years over the whole country. I do not mean to reflect that $300 million is not a lot of money, but, on the face of it, this does not appear to be a massive extra investment in Indigenous housing and, given the recognition of the costs of building in the Northern Territory and the size of the task, it will not go all that far.

First of all, is it actually only $300 million in extra money? Is it over four years, as it appears? Is it to be spread over the whole of Australia? How much will go to the Northern Territory? Is there any intention to provide any other funds to support the intervention, and to provide a contribution to new housing? As the minister knows well, while improving the maintenance of housing in the Northern Territory is a matter of urgency, if you still have 18 or 20 people in the house then having a better quality house does not solve the problem, because the house will not stay in good condition if you have 20 people trying to use the one toilet. That is the reality of the experience in the Northern Territory—and Senator Scullion knows more about it than I do. I will come to the matter of maintenance in a moment. Is it a fact that the amount is $300 million over four years? Is it over all of Australia, and is there any other provision or intention to invest more money into new housing in the Northern Territory?