A major issue facing Aboriginal communities is the provision of adequate housing. Lifestyle and health factors demand improved housing as a key priority in most communities. Until recently, funding for housing was administered through both Commonwealth and State or Territory bodies. This resulted in a duplication of services and programs, and wasted resources through unnecessary administration costs.
In 1990, at a Special Premiers Conference, it was recognised that similar services often being delivered by all three spheres of government led to waste of resources, overlap and confusion.
With Aboriginal housing in the Territory delivered from the Commonwealth through ATSIC’s Community Housing and Infrastructure Program and the Territory’s Aboriginal Rental Housing Program, scope for a bilateral agreement and the establishment of one funding body was clearly available.
Following extensive consultation, the ‘Bilateral Agreement for the Provision and Management of Housing and Related Infrastructure for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People of the Northern Territory’ was signed in June 1995.
The Indigenous Housing Authority of Northern Territory (IHANT) was established and is the sole housing funding agency in the Territory.
The Northern Territory was the first, and until recently, only State or Territory to successfully negotiate such an agreement.
