Mr WOOD - 2011-11-30
In an ABC media release by Ashleigh Raper on 23 November, the federal government is reported to have said its five-year leases on Aboriginal communities will stay in place until August next year and then they will be lifted. If this is true, what will happen to all the taxpayer-funded, SIHIP refurbished houses on these leases? Who will maintain the houses? Who will they belong to?
ANSWER
Madam Acting Speaker, I welcome the important question from the member for Nelson. I am advised just over 50 communities fit into this bracket of having five-year leases. Refurbishment works have been carried out on the majority of those communities. With the federal government, we are currently in negotiations with land councils and communities about extending those five-year leases, and it is my hope we can extend those leases. It is crucial that we do so.
In direct answer to your question, member for Nelson – and this is not a scenario I would welcome or believe is desirable for anyone - if agreement cannot be reached over extension of those leases I am advised the ownership of those houses, and the responsibilities for the repairs and maintenance, would fall either to the land trusts involved, or the community groups and organisations from whom they were originally leased.
That is not the desirable situation; that is something we on both sides of this House, including the Independents, want to avoid. I am hoping we can come to an agreement on that. It is essential that those communities and those assets be part of our remote rental framework where, yes, we are charging more rent in the bush but we are also putting substantially more money back into repairs and maintenance of those assets.
The path I want to move along is to provide sustainable employment for Indigenous organisations and individuals in those communities.
That is the most direct answer I can give you, member for Nelson.
ANSWER
Madam Acting Speaker, I welcome the important question from the member for Nelson. I am advised just over 50 communities fit into this bracket of having five-year leases. Refurbishment works have been carried out on the majority of those communities. With the federal government, we are currently in negotiations with land councils and communities about extending those five-year leases, and it is my hope we can extend those leases. It is crucial that we do so.
In direct answer to your question, member for Nelson – and this is not a scenario I would welcome or believe is desirable for anyone - if agreement cannot be reached over extension of those leases I am advised the ownership of those houses, and the responsibilities for the repairs and maintenance, would fall either to the land trusts involved, or the community groups and organisations from whom they were originally leased.
That is not the desirable situation; that is something we on both sides of this House, including the Independents, want to avoid. I am hoping we can come to an agreement on that. It is essential that those communities and those assets be part of our remote rental framework where, yes, we are charging more rent in the bush but we are also putting substantially more money back into repairs and maintenance of those assets.
The path I want to move along is to provide sustainable employment for Indigenous organisations and individuals in those communities.
That is the most direct answer I can give you, member for Nelson.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016