Cr Bev Manton: AHO Housing Summit

Speech by Chairperson Bev Manton
AHO Housing Summit

9 September 2008

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Good Afternoon Everyone

I would like to thank Allan Madden for his welcome and I would like to acknowledge the past & present Indigenous people of this land, the land of the Gadigal people we are meeting on today.

I would like also to acknowledge the Chairperson of the AHO Mr. Tom Slockee and the Director General of Housing NSW Mr. Mike Allan, my fellow councillors and other distinguished guests

It is my great pleasure to be here today to speak about an issue close to the hearts of all Aboriginal people, certainly close to my heart, that is the issue of housing for our people in NSW.

But before I speak to you today about the issue at hand Aboriginal Housing I would first like to talk to you about the NSW land council and remind you all just how land councils came about in this state and what we are.

I stand before you today as the first woman Chairperson of the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council.

In all honesty I can say as chairperson that I am proud of what we the nine elected councilors of NSWALC have achieved.

The New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council is the peak Aboriginal representative body in New South Wales. A self-funding Statutory Authority, the Council was established under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act in 1983.

Its goal, in short, is to empower Aboriginal people in NSW through economic and social independence. We have taken enormous strides towards this goal since our inception 25 years ago---but we still have a long way to go.

The easiest way to highlight this fact is to look back 25 years. We had nothing....no land, no economic base, no power. Aboriginal people existed on the margins.

The Land Right Act, which established NSWALC and a land claims process, was designed to provide us with compensation for more than 200 years of dispossession.

The total area of land returned to our people under the provisions of the land rights act is just over 80-thousand hectares.

That's just less than one per cent of the total land area of New South Wales.

The unimproved capital value of this land is conservatively estimated at more than $770-million dollars.

Despite the current economic worth of our land - Land rights alone cannot-and was never going to-- solve the deep seated and complex disadvantage that Aboriginal people face.

Our greatest challenge is to ensure we bury the myth that land rights were a magic bullet which would solve all the socio-economic disadvantage of our people.

Access to land remains but one of the key major interventions required from Government at the State and Commonwealth level if Aboriginal people's socioeconomic status is to be improved.

It is unfair and unrealistic to expect the relatively small and overcommitted structures of the NSW Land Councils to deliver the socioeconomic outcomes for our people that have eluded Governments across Australia.

Which brings us to today. Indigenous people across this country including the Aboriginal people of NSW face significant disadvantage as a result of their current housing situation, many of these houses are owned and managed by Local Aboriginal Land Councils.

It really goes without saying that what we want to see is affordable, appropriate and healthy housing for our people.

It is how we achieve this aim that is the challenge for government, NSWALC, LALC's and communities. Certainly, in the land council network we have a huge task ahead of us.

I am also hopeful that today I might be able to dispel a few myths about Aboriginal Housing particularly about LALC owned and managed Aboriginal housing.

And I would also like to speak to you about housing in the context of reform, reform of the sector generally but specifically reform of LALC housing which is essentially mandated through the amendments to the Aboriginal Land Rights Act.

Although we are all here today to look to the future, first we must recognise the past and how it is that as Land Councils we came to be the owners and managers of over a third of all Aboriginal Social Housing in NSW.

It was with the introduction of the land rights act in 1983, which we have just recently celebrated 25 years of; that heralded the transfer of land and housing stock from the Aboriginal Lands Trust to Local Aboriginal Land Councils.

Much of this land and housing was former missions and reserves and the transfer of this housing stock and land also saw the transfer of the responsibility of management of the housing stock to land councils away from government.

Backlogs in maintenance and underfunding in the years that followed only exacerbated the inequities between mainstream housing and LALC social housing which included:

The Majority of housing stock when first handed over was in very poor condition and in very short supply relative to demand;
LALC housing like all indigenous housing is overcrowded to a point where the housing stock deteriorates very rapidly - and there are major problems with the health of our people as a result; and
In the past tenants were justifiably reluctant to pay rent for sub standard housing, LALC's as a result suffered under the strain of limited rental income.

Whilst many LALC's continue to face these same issues on a day to day basis I would like to dispel a few myths.

The myth that Aboriginal people don't pay rent; that local land councils are poor housing managers and that all Aboriginal housing is in a state of disrepair because of the tenants of the housing.

It might surprise many to know that in 2006, 2007 Local Land Councils in NSW budgeted for over $9 million in rent and received close to $8 million in rental income. That's an 86% collection rate.

I would like to reiterate that point; in 2006, 2007 Local Land Councils in NSW budgeted for over $9 million in rent and received close to $8 million in rental income.

Many LALC's in NSW do an extraordinary job of managing housing. It is not easy to endorse the eviction of tenants or seek large sums in back rent when the tenant is a family member or friend.

But I must say the majority of LALC's do the best they can without any assistance from government, unlike community housing or public housing which receives significant financial subsidy.

Despite the best efforts of local land council's 8 million dollars a year is still not enough money to cover all the expenses that come with providing housing, and it is certainly not enough to cover the long term maintenance requirements, that are inherent in the provision of rental housing.

This brings us to the question of how we achieve our aim; of affordable, appropriate and healthy housing in the context of:shrinking government funding,
increasing government demands for LALC's to be accountable for the housing they manage; and
maybe most importantly, for LALC's: the recent amendments to the land rights act in the context of housing.

I am not going to pretend the task ahead will be easy nor would I suggest it will be painless; not for NSWALC, nor LALC's and not for communities and tenants.

The recent amendments to the Land Rights Act demand more from LALC's than mainstream community housing providers and certainly more than is demanded of the government as a provider of public housing.

The Land rights act now requires Local Aboriginal Land Council's who wish to continue to provide residential accommodation to Aboriginal people to seek approval to operate a Social Housing Scheme by July of 2010.

NSWALC is the approval authority under the Act who must determine if a Social Housing Scheme meets the requirements of the act.

The act originally required approval be sought by the end of this year. However, following representation from NSWALC, the registrar and the Ministers own department the land rights act was recently amended to provide further time.

NSWALC certainly recognises that this extension of time was essential to ensure we developed a policy and approval process to assist Land Council's to seek approval from NSWALC.

For NSWALC to approve a LALC to operate a social housing scheme, the LALC must first demonstrate they meet some rather prescriptive and stringent requirements. I will not pretend that all land council's will have the capacity to meet these requirements, and some tough decisions will need to be made.

The requirement that many Land Councils will fail to meet is, that of financial viability.

The act requires that NSWALC must not approve a Land Council to operate a Social Housing Scheme, unless the income from the scheme is, or will be sufficient, to meet all the expenses including long term maintenance costs.

The income of the scheme is the rent collected and any ongoing subsidy the local land council may be able to access to ensure long term maintenance and other costs are met.

The task of demonstrating that the income collected will met all the costs associated with housing will be particularly difficult for land council's that manage housing on former reserves.

Many in the wider community are unaware that the land councils that manage former reserves are burdened with not only the costs all housing owners face; but the additional costs of providing essential infrastructure and services such as:

Water and sewage;
Street lighting and roads;
Garbage collection; and
The upkeep of large common areas that adjoin these lands.

Whilst these costs are great it is hoped that one of the most exciting and innovative programs to be announced in the 25 year history of land rights in New South Wales will assist land council's in meeting some of these expenses.

Early this year the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council and the State Government announced an historic agreement to improve the health and well being of Aboriginal men, women and children in former reserves and missions across the State.

Both parties have committed to more than $100 million for at least the next 25 years for the operation, monitoring and maintenance of water and sewerage services in more than 60 communities - many former reserves and missions - across the State.

The package will provide water disinfection by replacing pipes and treatment plants, improvements to water quality, repairs to centralised sewerage systems and subsurface irrigation, regular inspections and maintenance of pump stations and water treatment plants, regular maintenance and cleaning of sewer pumps and sewer mains, and the regular collection and testing of water.

NSWALC's nine member Governing Council unanimously endorsed the proposal at its meeting in March this year.

Whilst this program was not developed in response to the housing amendments of the land rights act there are certainly linkages between the two.

In addition to demonstrating viability land council's will also need to meet a number of other criteria, specified in the land rights act.

It is not my intent to go into detail about these criteria, as NSWALC staff will be presenting a more in depth look at the amendments in a later session today.

However, I would like to speak about the requirement of the act that mandates that a social housing scheme is: fair and equitable and administered in a responsible manner.

This requirement will mean that land council's must have endorsed policies and procedures.

These policies and procedures will need to address the issues of who is eligible for housing? and how housing is allocated?

Issues which have been contentious in land council's and communities for generations.

Although the changes to the land rights act demand a lot of NSWALC, land councils and ultimately tenants, I firmly believe if we rise to the challenge we will be building the foundations of reaching our goal, of: affordable, appropriate and healthy housing.

How can land council housing remain affordable if it also has to meet all the outgoing costs associated with its provision I hear you ask.

Through appropriate government support and subsidy is my response. Land Council's that operate social housing schemes can capture government funds in one of two ways:

Through increasing rents to make sure all our tenants that are eligible to receive rent assistance do - many of our tenants are currently disadvantaged and don't receive the assistance they should from government, because rents are not set high enough for people to receive rent assistance ; and

Through participating in the AHO's reform process by either seeking accreditation or through using the services of a RAHMS; and therefore ensuring the land council is at least eligible for funding.

There is of course another option, one I know some land council's are considering; that is transferring the responsibility of the social housing to a body that can afford to maintain and continue to provide it for the benefit of Aboriginal people.

I am talking about head leasing our local land council social housing to a body such as the AHO.

This option would mean the housing would still be available for Aboriginal people but that a government body (who transferred the responsibility to us in the first place) would be responsible for all the costs of the housing.

There is no doubt that no matter what option a land council chooses it is likely to meet resistance from members and tenants.

Change is hard but often essential. After 25 years it is now time that NSWALC and local land council's considered how they want to own and manage social housing into the future.

We are talking about ensuring that future generations of Aboriginal people live in appropriate, affordable and healthy housing. Something I believe we can achieve if we stand united,

Thank you