Labor pledges $100 million for NT homelands if elected

During a visit to Darwin on Wednesday, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, also announced that a Labor Government would also renegotiate with the NT Government, which is set to end in mid-2023, to include culturally significant homelands.

"Let me assure you, the federal government has no intention of renegotiating that agreement. It is worth $550 million. And if Labor is elected on the 21st of May, just a few weeks time, then Labor will renegotiate with the Northern Territory Government..." Ms Burney said.

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She said the $100 million for homelands would be spent immediately, ahead of the renegotiation.

"We know that this is a downpayment. We know and understand just how fundamental housing is to the well being of First Nations people."

She also pledged $200 million for repairs and maintenance for remote housing across the country.

NT Remote Housing Minister Chansey Paech was asked about the NT Government's $1.1 billion 10-year remote housing program, which began in 2017 and has missed a number of its rollout targets.

"When we designed the program, the program was never designed to be $110 million every year. When we came to government, there were only 70 lots available in the territory to build public housing in remote communities, we've had to bring online subdivisions and create over 700 new blocks across remote communities to build on," Mr Paech said.

"The National Partnership Agreement...that was an agreement that we had scheduled for, we are working through that program and you'll see in the outer years of that program where we are now that we have a large number of a large projects going out that are awarding to Aboriginal business enterprises, and that is remaining committed to our targets."

NT Senator Malarndirri McCarthy re-iterated Labor's pledge to scrap the controversial Community Development Program, (CDP) which impacts a large number of Indigenous Territorians.

She said Labor would look to reinstate the previous Community Development Employment Program (CDEP).

"Before I came into parliament, I was on a program called the CDEP. I was a paid participant on that program. That was many moons ago. But it worked...Why did it work? Because it empowered the local community to make decisions about where that funding would go, who they would pay, what jobs that they could do, what skills did they have," Ms McCarthy said.

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