The Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) has called on the Federal Government to commit to a $100 million per annum housing package in its upcoming budget to address unacceptable levels of overcrowding in Queensland’s First Nations communities.
According to the LGAQ, a surge in COVID cases in remote and discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities has reinforced the urgent need for more Federal funding to increase housing supply and combat overcrowding.
LGAQ President and Sunshine Coast Council Mayor, Mark Jamieson, said that the urgent funding was needed not just to Close the Gap but to save lives.
“Accounts of up to 30 people living in two and three-bedroom homes, and a shortfall of thousands of houses across communities which are among our most vulnerable, are quite simply unacceptable,” Mayor Jamieson said.
“We need a firm and ongoing funding commitment from the Commonwealth to address this issue.
“Every Queensland community contributes to the economic fabric of this nation. Every Queensland community deserves to be a liveable one.
“We are asking the Federal Government to ensure it does not leave our First Nations communities behind when it hands down its Budget in just over five weeks’ time.”
Lockhart River Aboriginal Shire Council Mayor, Wayne Butcher, said that overcrowding was a human rights issue that must be urgently addressed with dedicated long-term funding from the Federal Government.
“Efforts to improve the health and education of many of our people are being crippled by overcrowding,” Mayor Butcher said.
Mayor Jamieson said a Federal Government review of the now concluded National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing had found that while the program had made significant inroads into the level of overcrowding in the communities, the job was far from over.
“Dedicated investment in housing in these remote and discrete communities would serve as a powerful stimulus,” Mayor Jamieson said.
“It would re-energise local economies as well as inject $22 million into Queensland’s Gross State Product – while at the same time saving lives.”
