The Federal Government has reached agreement with the Northern Territory Government on remote housing and public hospital funding, providing certainty for essential services in the Territory.
To help address the housing needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in remote communities, the Federal Government has committed $550 million for five years to support remote housing in the Territory. This funding will commence in 2018-19 and will be matched by Northern Territory Government contributions, with the Northern Territory Government retaining responsibility for sub-leasing arrangements in these remote communities for the five-year period.
Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Senator the Hon Nigel Scullion said this new investment will help address severe overcrowding in remote communities.
"This $550 million funding commitment comes on top of the $1.7 billion investment into remote housing in the Territory since 2008,” he said.
"Our focus will be ensuring Aboriginal community control is at the heart of our investment, from decision-making to employment and business procurement to ensure we deliver long term sustainable change in remote communities.”
The Federal Government also welcomed the Northern Territory's commitment to sign the Heads of Agreement on public hospital funding and health reform, which will extend and increase funding arrangements for public hospitals for another five years. The Agreement increases funding to the Northern Territory to $1.96 billion over the period 2020-21 to 2024-25.
In addition, the two Governments have reached substantive agreement on the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement (NHHA), which, once finalised, will provide funding equating to $98.5 million over the next five years to the Northern Territory to support the delivery of affordable housing and homelessness services.