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THE BOXED SEAT: A pox on all their houses
ISSUE 180 - 25 Jun 2009
ISSUE 180, June 25, 2009: Whitefellas were ripping off black land in 1835, and they're still doing it today, writes BRIAN JOHNSTONE*.
Politics is full of irony. Take Jenny Macklin's electorate of Jagajaga which covers 87sq kilometres of leafy suburbs in outer metropolitan Melbourne.
It is named after three Wurundjeri elders who, among others, signed a treaty on June 6, 1835 with farmer and businessman John Batman.
The Wurundjeri were the original owners and custodians of the land in and around Melbourne.
Ms Macklin notes on her website that the treaty gave the white settlers 202,343 hectares of land at the northwest end of Port Philip Bay.
She does not record the exchange rate for such a huge parcel of land.
It was, in fact, signed over for an upfront fee of twenty pairs of blankets, thirty tomahawks, one hundred knives, fifty pair of scissors, thirty looking glasses, two hundred handkerchiefs, one hundred pounds of flour and six shorts.
This was to be followed by a "yearly rent or tribute" of one hundred pairs of blankets, one hundred knives, one hundred tomahawks, fifty suits of clothing, fifty looking glasses, fifty pair of scissors and five tons of flour.
Ms Macklin's website also fails to note the treaty deed was considered at the time to have re-set the relationship between the white settlers and the original owners, that it was later declared void by the Governor of New South Wales, Richard Bourke, or that the Wurundjeri clearly signed away the rights to Batman for a song.
I found myself wondering if much had really changed since 1835 while reading a recent speech in the federal parliament on Minister Macklin's attempt to assume Commonwealth and Territory control by compulsorily acquiring the squalid town camps in Alice Springs.
I readily concede the blankets, tomahawks and flour pale in the face of the $125 million dollar carrot Macklin is currently waving in front of Tangentyere Council and the town camp associations.
But why, one continues to wonder, are they being asked to dilute their land rights while being publicly vilified in the process?
I also found myself thinking that it was not that long ago that such a speech might have been delivered from the benches occupied by the Labor Party in the federal or NT parliaments.
That has certainly changed since the assumption of government in both Darwin and Canberra.
The speech in question was delivered by WA Greens Senator Rachel Siewert.
She rose in the Senate on June 17 to express her concern at the blame game being conducted against Tangentyere Council and the town camp associations as a result of the way the federal government had gone about its campaign on the town camps.
Senator Siewert began by expressing her concern "at the way the town camp housing associations are being blamed for the appalling conditions that people live in the camps and for the breakdown in negotiations over the leases and housing in the town camps".
She was in "absolute agreement that housing and infrastructure in the town camps needed to be improved".
The central issue, however, was how this occurred and "how you maintain the involvement of the town campers and the Tangentyere Council".
She then kicked the elephant in the chamber.
"The terrible conditions of housing and other conditions in town camps are the direct result of long-term neglect by successive governments - both Labor and Liberal at both Commonwealth and Territory levels - who have failed to deliver essential basic services like water, power sewerage, rubbish collections and the rest of those services that people outside town camps, and particularly in metropolitan areas, take for granted.
"The majority of water and sewerage lines into town camps are over 30 years old.
"The NT Government and the Alice Springs town council have, all this time, refused to take responsibility for delivering any services to the camps.
"In many cases the lines are maintained to the camp boundaries and the rest is left to the camps who are not resourced to fix or maintain them.
"The end result is that town camp residents have to pay massive excess water bills because of leaky pipes, but they do not receive a level of maintenance or service in return for those high fees.
"Unfortunately the government has followed the practice of successive governments of blaming Aboriginal people for the appalling state of repair of their houses."
"Where's the evidence?" she asked.
The question was rhetorical.
There is none.
Senator Siewert then laid out some pertinent facts after reminding the Senate of the Rudd government's continual emphasis on its commitment to evidence-based policy.
"The research into the reasons for poor conditions and housing maintenance problems indicates very clearly that damage by residents is not the major factor and, in fact, makes a very minor contribution to the poor repair of housing.
"The greatest factor is, quite simply, overcrowding.
"Things like doorknobs, hinges, showers, taps and switches wear out because of the sheer amount they are used by the excessive number of people that have to crowd into these houses."
Senator Siewert then turned to the "next major factor".
A recent study had shown 16 to 28 percent of problems resulted from faulty construction work.
She noted the functioning of housing in Alice Springs town camps was compared to the national and Territory averages as part of the Fixing Houses for Better Health program.
"This revealed that, prior to further maintenance work being done, critical healthy living practices were better than the NT average on seven out of 10 measures and better than the national average on three measures - things like showers, toilets, working kitchens, lights and safe power.
"This made the point that the very limited amount of maintenance money that Tangentyere and the town camp housing associations have is very clearly prioritised to target the most important issues.
"After work done as part of the Fixing Houses for Better Health program, Tangentyere performed better than the NT average on nine out of 10 measures and exceeded the national average on eight out of 10 measures."
This, Senator Siewert pointed out, was despite the use of a relatively small amount of maintenance budget of $7,500 per house.
She welcomed anyone to the statistical evidence in her possession.
The WA Greens Senator then turned to the nub of the blue between Tangentyere and the federal government.
"The minister and the government are now proposing to take control of these houses from Tangentyere and hand it over to the Northern Territory Housing Authority which, according to these figures performs worse on maintaining critical healthy living standards on eight out of 10 measures," she said.
"In other words Tangentyere performs better than NT housing, which is who the government proposes to hand control...."
She pointed out the sticking point for Tangentyere and the town camp housing associations was not the proposed 40 year leases.
"Despite their reservation about handing over their hard won control of their land they have agreed to sign up," she added.
"Tangentyere have agreed to institute tenancy management reforms and to adhere to gold standard community housing tenancy and asset management principles.
"They have agreed to contract to an independent organisation to undertake this reform, with a gradual hand-back of management to the proposed Central Australian Affordable Housing Company once it achieves government milestones and accreditation hurdles.
"The sticking point is the government's insistence that control of all housing in the town camps be handed over to the Northern Territory Housing Authority which has a bad record on delivering public housing to Aboriginal people and which is simply not trusted by town camp residents."
She later pointed out that the latest study of operating deficits in public housing by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute highlighted massive operating deficits experienced by most state public housing authorities.
"The northern Territory Housing Authority, and, to a lesser extent, Tasmania, stand out as being the worst of the worst by a long way," she added.
"The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute proposed a new model to fix public housing that they said would work almost everywhere in Australia except in the NT because [housing was] so bad."
Senator Siewert said she'd spoken to community housing experts about the proposed model for the Central Australian Affordable Housing Company.
"It is a best practice model developed with one of Australia's leading community housing experts.
"It exceeds the standards currently being set for community housing that is being developed in our cities, urban and regional centres under the NRAS, the National Rental Affordability Scheme."
She congratulated the government for funding Tangentyere to develop this model and establish the Central Australian Affordable Housing Company.
While it was being established Tangentyere proposed to "partner with and contract management from Australia's largest, and arguably most reputable community housing company".
Senator Siewert concluded by reminding the Senate that Minister Macklin had suggested her problem was the management practices of Tangentyere and the town camp housing associations.
The Minister had claimed they were "characterised by nepotism and favouritism and this is why they must take over and hand control to Territory housing.
"Where is the evidence of corruption?" she asked.
"Where is the evidence that a public housing model will produce better health and housing outcomes for town camp residents?
"Where is the evidence that 40-year leases will produce, and are necessary to produce, better health and housing outcomes?
"I am disturbed by the manner in which consent to 40-year leases has been tied to the delivery of essential services, with communities being clearly threatened that they will not receive essential housing services if they do not comply.
"To the Australian Greens this is not re-setting the relationship with Aboriginal people.
"This is not consultation or informed consent.
"It is a mantra proposed firstly by the previous government and taken up by the Labor government."
A fortnight before Senator Siewert's speech the Director of the Central Land Council, David Ross, issued a public statement which defended Tangentyere and the town camp housing associations against constant public attack.
He pointed out that the fact the town camps had poor infrastructure and chronic overcrowding was not the fault of Tangentyere.
"It is the fault of successive Commonwealth and Territory Government's which have drip fed them for years while millions of Commonwealth Grants to the Territory has been shamefully squandered," Mr Ross said.
"What people do not recognise in this entire debate is that it is just not about houses and sewage pipes. Solving town camp problems is complex and simply not possible without the active involvement of town camp residents," he added.
Mr Ross asked what Minister Macklin thought she would do once she was the landlord.
"It should be remembered," he added, "that the Australian government has been the leaseholder of Mutitjulu for more than 20 years and the conditions in that community are worse than most town camps".
He pointed out that Minister Macklin was out of step with her colleagues on housing management.
"In March this year the federal Minister for Housing, Tanya Plibersek said in a speech to the Sydney Institute that the centrepiece of the government's reform agenda is to facilitate the growth of a number of sophisticated not-for-profit housing organisations that will operate alongside existing state-run housing authorities.
"Shifting of all of the town camps, and all of the remote communities in the NT under the umbrella of Territory Housing goes against national policy and international trends.
"The Australian Government wants to use leases to lock in all Indigenous housing under Territory Housing for up to 40-years while town camps and remote community residents are asking for a social housing mix which is forward looking and promotes diversity and choice.
"I can assure you that having Territory Housing take over housing in town camps will be no silver bullet. It may even be worse, despite the promised investment of $125 million.
"It goes without saying that 'partnerships' and 'solutions' cannot be imposed, let alone compulsorily acquired."
The CLC urged Minister Macklin to reconsider her ultimatum and get back to the negotiating table.
The statement by Mr Ross and the speech by Senator Siewert have both been attempts to inject a bit of sanity into a highly charged debate in which the history of the town camps, and of Tangentyere and the town camps housing associations, have largely been ignored.
Tangentyere has been operating since 1974, when a group of concerned town camp residents came together to resolve a range of issues which included the ongoing neglect by governments.
The group called themselves Tangentyere, a local Arrernte word meaning "working together, to help each other" or "all speaking together".
Those interested in a greater appreciation of the issues at stake and the apparent intransigence of Tangentyere in the face of Minister Macklin's campaign could do worse than read a 65-page report on population and mobility in the town camps prepared by the Tangentyere Council Research Unit back in December 2005.
It provides a great insight into the reasons for the existence of the camps - the conditions endured by their inhabitants due to decades of government neglect.
The figures on overcrowding are eye-popping.
No wonder you hear precious little from the two major political parties on how such living conditions could be ignored and allowed to develop.
It's a pox on both of them.
boxseat@nit.com.au
* Brian Johnstone is a Walkley Award winning journalist and a fortnightly NIT columnist and writer.
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