The Tangentyere Debate

Yesterday (August 15) Alice Online presented a letter by Bob Durnan that was originally sent to The Centralian Advocate raising issues about both the Federal Government's Intervention in the Northern Territory and its plan to take over the housing functions of the Alice Springs-based provider for residents of town camps, Tangentyere Council. Today we present a response to Bob Durnan's letter from Tangentyere Council. That's William Timouth on the right of this photo, with Tangentyere's first director Geoff Shaw (centre) and son Walter.

The Editor

The Centralian Advocate

5 August 2009

Dear Sir

I write in reply to the issues relating to Tangentyere Council that were raised by Bob Durnan in your newspaper on 31^st July 2009.

Tangentyere Council runs a wide range of programs primarily for the 2-3000 Town Camp residents, but in some cases for the wider Alice Springs population and the whole of Central Australia.

All of the programs that Tangentyere runs are grant funded, mostly by various departments of the Australian and Northern Territory Governments with some grants from philanthropic bodies. The number of grants that we receive, and therefore the funds received, varies from year to year and may comprise up to 140 different grants. Despite the fact that many of these grants are used for important services, the large majority of them are for one year or less. Most grants have to be applied for each year, and reported on usually four times a year with both financial and progress reports. All programs are audited each year, and closely scrutinized by funding bodies, as Bob Durnan would be well aware.

Tangentyere Council receives little credit for the successful programs it runs. These include:

Drum Atweme, a drumming program for Town Camp kids that plays at almost every major event and conference in town, requires participants to attend school and teaches budgeting and social skills;

CAYLUS, which worked hard for the introduction of non sniffable opal petrol across Central Australia, and which has made a huge difference to the lives of many young people and their families;

After hours and weekend sporting activities for Town Camp youth, winner of a crime prevention award;

Tangentyere Artists, with 400 participating Town Camp artists, enabling them to earn income within an ethical and transparent framework;

Approximately 400 meals-on-wheels provided each week to Town Camp residents who are elderly or who have disabilities;

A banking service for Town Camp residents and their many visitors from remote communities, which also runs a voluntary food voucher program;

Day, youth and night patrols for the town of Alice Springs as well as Town Camps.

There are many other programs run by hard working staff who get little recognition for the skills and commitment they bring to their jobs. Many of our programs run in conjunction with government departments or other non government organizations, so that services operate collaboratively to meet the needs of clients, without duplication.

There are also successful enterprises under the umbrella of Tangentyere Council, including Tangentyere Design, winner of a number of awards, Tangentyere Constructions and the Alice Springs Employment and Training Services (ASEATS). These enterprises compete against private companies on the open market and enable work experience and training for Aboriginal staff. Indeed, Tangentyere Council employs 175 Aboriginal staff, 70% of its workforce. Their language skills and family and cultural knowledge enable many services to be delivered sensitively and effectively to a client group that is often wary or shy in using mainstream services.

We have been telling governments for a long time that conditions on Town Camps are unacceptable. In submission after submission we have written of domestic violence, overcrowding and the danger of young people ending up in the criminal justice system.

Because of this, we have welcomed the Australian government’s offer of substantial funds for Town Camps and the town of Alice Springs. A year ago Tangentyere Executive agreed to sub lease to the Australian government for 40 years, We believed then as we do now that including the Housing Associations in a true partnership would be more effective than a model where government makes all decisions.

To this end, Tangentyere Council established the Central Australian Affordable Housing Company (CAAHC). The CAAHC presents a new approach to housing management for indigenous housing in Australia. It aims to capitalize on the strength of the environmental health based philosophies, policies and procedures developed by Tangentyere Council and other indigenous housing providers over the past 30 years of self determination, whilst embracing a new professional governance arrangement, a new social business model and new mixed funding arrangements pioneered by the not-for-profit mainstream community housing sector. This model includes representation from the Australian and NT governments, housing industry experts and Town Camp residents, providing skilled and open governance.

The model offers a new professional approach to affordable housing management and development, whilst still empowering indigenous people to have agency in their lives. It offers a pathway to less rather than more welfare dependency through a range of housing options from low cost affordable rental accommodation, shared equity home ownership and full home ownership.

This is not a continuation of the community housing model that has been operating for the past 30 years, as the article asserts. This particular community housing model is now considered best practice in the rest of Australia. Indeed, 70% of the Australian Government's $6.4 billion mainstream Social Housing Initiative will go towards this model of community housing, but Aboriginal people don’t appear to have this option available to them. By electing to place management of Town Camp housing with the Territory government, the Commonwealth is acting contrary to its own policy of developing community housing business models afforded to mainstream housing. Tangentyere too believes this is a more cost effective and sustainable model than management by Territory Housing. To this end we proposed a joint venture between CAAHC and Community Housing Limited (CHL) a national, well established and successful affordable housing company to be given the job of managing Town Camp housing, but this option was refused.

The fact that it is now recognized that at least $100 million is needed to bring Town Camp housing up to acceptable levels, shows how inadequate the level of housing funding has been. Tangentyere housing has prioritized its repairs and maintenance work along recognized environmental health guidelines. Despite only $2,200 being provided by the NT government for maintenance per Town Camp house compared to the $5,500 to $7,500 being paid for the maintenance of remote housing, the private company Healthabitat found that Town Camp housing scored higher against most health and housing indicators than did the rest of the Northern Territory (refer Late Night Live, Radio National, 2 June 2009).

We are proud of the services we provide. At the end of the day, what Town Camp communities want is the same as everyone wants, a decent life for families, a say in the matters that affect their lives, and a sense of hope for the future.

William Tilmouth

Executive Director