The Northern Territory government will freeze rent payments for public housing tenants affected by historic flooding sweeping the Big Rivers region.
Monsoon rains have inundated remote Aboriginal communities in the region over the past two weeks. The Daly River area was the worst affected on Wednesday, with Dorisvale Crossing reaching 23.93 meters at 1.30pm, the highest level ever recorded. The nearby Katherine River peaked at 19.2 meters last Saturday, its highest level since the 1998 floods.
The NT housing department confirmed the emergency rental pause on Friday, saying public housing tenants affected by the floods did not need to apply to receive the reprieve.
“The rent pause will automatically apply to eligible public housing tenants,” a department spokesperson said. “While the response is underway, we continue to survey and evaluate entry conditions into communities, followed by an analysis of properties for safety.”
The spokesperson said the department “remains focused on supporting displaced residents, assessing damage as quickly as possible and assisting affected public housing tenants.”
Aboriginal Housing NT chief executive Leeanne Caton said suspending rent payments was a “show of goodwill” until people could return to safe homes, clean them and make them habitable.
“We are talking about the most disadvantaged people in the territory – or probably in this country – who are now technically homeless, because they have been evacuated from their communities,” he said.
“These people are already in poverty and are simply living and camping where they can in regional centres.
Caton added: “The real point here is that these people are human beings and should be treated as such. With respect and the government should do everything it can to help them in any way it can. Just because they live in a remote community doesn’t mean they don’t deserve respect.”
The announcement came three days after the Northern Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) wrote a letter to the federal and NT governments criticizing the “patchwork response” to support communities outside Katherine.
Until Wednesday, people living outside the Katherine local government area were unable to access emergency flood relief payments, drawing criticism from multiple Aboriginal bodies.
NAAJA chief executive Ben Grimes said remote Aboriginal communities were home to some of the region’s “most vulnerable people”, many of whom were now displaced.
“Many of our clients live in social housing and low-lying areas that are hardest hit by the floods. Some households have lost everything. The system is not designed to support them quickly in a crisis – it is making recovery slower and more painful than necessary,” he said.
Grimes called for a rent freeze for social housing tenants in flood-affected areas, with refunds for rent paid since March 6. He also expressed concern that people in the local communities of Emu Point, Woodycupidiya and Uminyuluk were experiencing food shortages.
An NT Government spokesperson said concerns about food safety were “being appropriately addressed”. They also said that due to multiple emergency events “occurring” simultaneously,” flood relief payments were being implemented on “different schedules,” which affected when specific relief measures could be activated.
Food aid payments for affected areas, including Roper Gulf, West Daly, Victoria Daly, Coomalie, Belyuen, Wagait, West Arnhem, Litchfield, Darwin, Palmerston and greater Darwin areas, were added to joint emergency funding arrangements between states and territories on Thursday.
Residents of the remote communities of Naiyu (Daly River) and Palumpa have been evacuated to the Darwin Showgrounds, with no timetable on when they will be able to return to their homes. Meanwhile, Kakadu has been completely isolated.
Shadow Housing Minister Dheran Young said the NT Government needed to support the rebuilding of communities when flood waters recede.
“That approach is important because overcrowding is already a serious challenge in many remote communities, with real consequences for health, safety and well-being, and recovery efforts should reduce that pressure rather than worsen it,” he said.
A federal government spokesperson said they were supporting states and territories with the costs of providing relief and recovery assistance through jointly funded disaster recovery funding agreements, but the responsibility for distributing that assistance fell to the states.
