Oct 2019
Galiwin’ku residents allocated housing shelter years after Cyclone Lam’s havoc
Almost five years after the Arnhem Land community of Galiwin’ku was battered by Cyclone Lam, the NT Government is yet to spend $20.3 million of disaster relief funding for rebuilding housing.
- 80 houses in Galiwin’ku were destroyed when Cyclone Lam hit the Arnhem Land coast in 2015
- $20 million allocated to rebuild houses in Galiwin’ku remains unspent by the NT Government
- The NT Government has missed deadlines to claim Commonwealth reimbursements for the program
Please click here to read the full article by Kate Ashton on ABC News
March 2019
Time for Aboriginal housing in Aboriginal hands
The standoff between the NT and Federal Governments over remote housing could be solved immediately by handing community housing back to Aboriginal people.
To read the full article please click here.
March 2015
Remote Community Closures
Will You Help to Prevent a Crisis?
The Commonwealth’s commitment to Homelands and Outstations was surely sealed by the 1967 Referendum. How can it be then that the federal government can consider abandoning their long-held responsibilities by cutting essential funding to these especially vulnerable areas?
What is clear is that the Commonwealth knows full well that the consequences of the cuts will fall with brute force onto Aboriginal communities least able to defend themselves. Such behaviour is contemptible.
It is quite clear that state governments do not have the resources to simply replace Federal funding. Mr. Barnett in Western Australia has responded by indicating that he will close up to 150 remote Aboriginal communities by simply cutting off their essential services – water, power etc. Arrangements with the South Australia government are still to be determined but at this stage the outstations fear their fate will be similar to those in the West.
Please click here for more information.
Jon Altman: Homelands under the hammer, again, from the aspiring PM for indigenous policy
July 2013
Community Living Areas
We are advised through a statement on the website of the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) that regulatory changes have been made to Community Living Areas in the Northern Territory.
This regulation Number 184 is made under the Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Act 2012. (See ComLaw for details)
The explanatory Note states:
The Regulation modifies section 110 of the Associations Act (NT), as set out in Schedule 7 of the Regulation, and enables community living area landowners (both associations and Aboriginal corporations) to grant leases and licences for purposes consistent with the Northern Territory Planning Scheme without Northern Territory Ministerial consent if the grant is for a term of 10 years or less.
Purposes consistent with the Northern Territory Planning Scheme, including the following:
(i) commercial purposes, including a community store
(ii) purposes relating to infrastructure
(iii) public purposes, including the provision of essential services
See http://www.lands.nt.gov.au
This change was implemented following ‘consultations’ held between just fifteen selected Community Living Areas and Commonwealth Government representatives. There are more than a hundred Community Living Areas. The criteria for conducting consultations recommended by the Human Rights Commissioner (2010) and again recommended by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights (2013) were not used and no transcripts have been provided.
Community Living Areas (CLAs)
CLA Media Release by the government
CLA Discussion Paper
Rather than providing certainty and support to Aboriginal people in Community Living Areas (CLAs) in the NT, the Federal Government continues its obsessive march to remove control from Aboriginal Peoples.
It is understood that current leases for CLAs need to be less restrictive, and there is evidence for this from some of the larger CLAs. The Federal Government, however, intends to use this opportunity to take control over future development in these areas through sections 35 (4) and 35 (5) to the Stronger Futures legislation which allow changes to regulations without consultation with owners and where their consent is not required.
Such loss of control will deny certainty for those living in CLAs and deny them the right to self-determination.
This is disgraceful legislation and in breach of Australia’s commitments under international law. The controls that have been set are arbitrary and there is no avenue for appeal.
The Stronger Futures Legislation on Land Reform
35 (4) Before making regulations for the purposes of subsection (1) in relation to a community living area, the Minister must consult with:
(a) the Government of the Northern Territory; and
(b) if the owner of the land that is the community living area requests to be consulted about the making of regulations for the purposes of subsection (1)—the owner; and
(c) the Land Council (within the meaning of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976) in whose area the community living area is located; and
(d) any other person the Minister considers appropriate to consult.
35 (5) A failure to comply with subsection (4) does not affect the validity of the regulations.
Submission by ‘concerned Australians’ on CLAs – April 2013
Submission by ‘concerned Australians’ on Stronger Futures Land Reform – January 2012
Disempowerment in NT Communities Driven by Arrogant Policy and Inept Processes
List of Community Living Areas in the NT as shown on the FaHCSIA website