New Nielsen poll shows that nearly 70 percent of the respondents in Australia support an amnesty to fix the housing problems of the indigenous people. The public wants a housing fix.
Australians believe the federal government should put it on its priority list to fix the housing problems of the indigenous people. Now, Australia has a program in place to fix the housing. However, according to ABC Australia, it has failed.
The program is called Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program. It has $672 million dollar budget. However, it has "failed to build a single house since it was announced in April last year."
"Already $40 million of this money's been spent and not gone anywhere for Aboriginal people, and people see when that sort of money's been spent and nothing happens, people do get upset with that," says Rodney Dillion from Amnesty International.
The Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program (SIHIP) is the largest Indigenous housing program undertaken by the Australian and Northern Territory Governments.
This joint $672 million housing program will deliver 750 new houses, 230 rebuilds of existing houses and 2,500 refurbishments across 73 remote Indigenous communities and a number of community living areas (town camps) in the Northern Territory by 2013.
Three construction company consortia known as alliances have been engaged to deliver the program. The Alliances are working closely with communities and government to deliver better housing for Indigenous Australians in the NT. A target of 20% has been set for Indigenous employment across the program. Alliances are also looking to sub contract and use local companies wherever possible, placing a priority on the use of local Indigenous companies.
Written by Armen Hareyan
Materials from ABC and from the Australian Department of Local Government and Housing are used in this report.
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