A federal audit has revealed the Gunner Government’s “slow” turnover of remote housing projects, with only 19 per cent of bedrooms completed under a federal funding arrangement, that has a Senator declaring the government “hopelessly behind” on its pledge to improve remote housing.

The Australian National Audit Office found failings with the National Indigenous Australians Agency’s management of the National Partnership on Remote Housing (NPRH), which the Federal Government committed $550 million toward from financial years 2016-17 to 2022-23.

The Federal Government said the money was aimed at “improving housing conditions and reducing overcrowding” in 73 remote communities across the NT and 17 town camps in Alice Springs.

The housing project was meant to be delivered over five years.

However, more than three years into the agreement, in September 2021, 20 months before the end of the partnership, the auditors found only 19 per cent or 363 of the 1,950 bedrooms agreed to were completed.

“NIAA’s key concern when monitoring NT Government’s delivery of the program of works has been the slow pace of construction, and NIAA has consequently focused on seeking to accelerate the delivery of houses,” the report stated.

“Some important elements, including a full description of outcomes and outputs and provision for risk management, were not adequately covered in the implementation plan. The implementation plan also lacks clarity and ­specificity.”

The federal audit comes nearly two years after an NT Auditor General’s report found the Gunner Government’s Room to Breathe remote housing program was so poorly managed that the government could not properly assess whether its objectives were being achieved and that changes were needed to properly deliver the program.

The NT AG’s audit examined the $200 million 2016 election commitment program by the Labor Government, which was part of the $1.1 billion remote housing program and was released in June 2020.

The report found massive failures with the program since its inception in 2017, including improper procurement practices, lack of oversight, slow rollout of works, large contract variation costs and poor consultation with remote communities the program was purportedly created to help. It also found the department withheld records from the Auditor General.

Senator Sam McMahon said the new federal audit showed NT Remote Housing Minister Chansey Paech was clearly behind on constructing remote housing and was letting remote Territorians down.

Senator McMahon said the Federal Government had agreed to provide the $550 million over five years for remote indigenous housing as a 50-50 share with the Gunner Government for the NPRH.

She said the figures are alarming and show that the Gunner Labor government is “not up to the task”.

“The Federal Government has been playing its part in remote housing. It is the NTG which must deliver it and the fact it is slow to deliver speaks volumes of the administrative inefficiencies it has created, Ms McMahon said.

“To date the Commonwealth has spent $290 million on the NPRH and the NT Government website shows it has contributed $272 million.”

“This now leaves approximately $538 million of the NPRH to be spent over the next 18 months. I do hope Mr Paech and his government plan to get out there on the tools and start building houses.”

The audit of the program also found that the NIAA had not been assured the NT Government will meet its $550 million co-contribution over the life of the program.

Barkly MLA Steve Edgington meanwhile said he is “concerned” about how slowly the Labor government is spending the money provided by the Commonwealth.

“There are serious overcrowding issues right across the Barkly, which are now being highlighted by the current COVID outbreak,” Mr Edgington said.

“To think that people’s lives are now being put at risk because of the ineptitude of this government to roll out housing projects over the past three years is just disgraceful.

“The fact the NTG has spent only a fraction of the funding provided is symptomatic of the shambles that is the Gunner Labor government.”

Mr Paech said the government would be “accelerating” works and was “confident” the program would be completed by June 2023. He also said there were hundreds of millions in contracts for new builds and refurbishments “in the pipeline”.

Indigenous group calls for $2 billion housing spend: “Overcrowding kills”

The Central Land Council meanwhile called for governments to allocate a $2 billion commitment to fix overcrowding in remote communities.

“The audit report found that more than half of our houses are still overcrowded,” chairman Sammy Wilson said.

“Overcrowding kills, as this [COVID-19] pandemic has shown once again because our growing families can’t safely isolate from the virus.”

The council urged federal politicians to commit to increasing investment in remote housing “if they win the upcoming federal election”.

“To save lives and improve the life chances of our people, we need the federal and NT governments between them to spend at least $2 billion over the next five years,” CLC Chief Executive Les Turner said.

“This will build 2000 new houses and make another 4000 houses more livable in communities and homelands across the region.”

Mr Turner said governments need to stop pointing the finger at each other and work with the NT’s Aboriginal representative organisations to build a sustainable Aboriginal housing sector.

“The governments need to support remote community housing trials that will reveal the true cost of shifting to Aboriginal-controlled housing and invest in re-building the sector,” he said.