“The egregious failure to meet the housing needs of Canberra residents brings a focus to the promise Labor and the Greens made at the last  election, to establish an Aboriginal Housing Corporation. A promise neither party has bothered to meet,” writes JULIE TONGS.

In recent months ACT Auditor-General Mike Harris has issued three reports on subjects which, while of importance to the whole community, are particularly so to the Aboriginal community.

The reports relate to public housing, the Step Up for Our Kids program and the planning and delivery of services for young people with moderate to severe mental illness.

I urge anyone with an interest in social justice or a fair, just and compassionate society to read the reports. Sadly, they do anything but confirm that Canberra exhibits or possesses these characteristics.

In the report on public housing the auditor found that in the five years between June 30 2018 and June 30 2023 the number of Canberra households registered and waiting for public housing increased by a staggering 80 per cent from 1752 to 3174. 

Incredibly, of the 137 households assessed as requiring priority housing, that is their need was either urgent, exceptional or critical, the wait time for housing was a minimum of eight months. 

It is relevant when reflecting on this deeply distressing data that in roughly the same timeframe the ACT government sold off 1288 units of public housing along Northbourne Avenue and committed the proceeds of the sales to the light rail project.

The report also notes that the wait time for the 2035 households on the high-needs register for public housing was 3.3 years, while the wait for the 977 applications for standard housing was 5.3 years.

Comparing the ACT government’s performance in the provision of public housing against the rest of Australia, the auditor reported that on June 30 2023, across the whole of Australia that 41 per cent of new applications for public housing were in the “greatest need” category compared to 33 per cent in 2018. 

However, in the ACT on that day a staggering 69 per cent of new applicants for public housing in the ACT, many of whom would undoubtedly be Aboriginal families, were categorised as in “greatest need”.

The egregious failure of the ACT government to meet the housing needs of Canberra residents brings a particular focus to the promise that both the Labor and Greens parties made at the last ACT election, to establish an Aboriginal Housing Corporation. A promise which neither party has bothered to meet.

Following the release of the public housing report the auditor-general released, in April, a report on The Management of Key Contracts under A Step Up for Our Kids. 

This is a program established by the ACT government for the delivery of out-of-home care services for children removed from their families. Sadly, the ACT has one of the highest rates of removal of Aboriginal children from their families in Australia hence the particular significance of this audit report to the Aboriginal community. 

It was of enormous sadness to me to read the report and learn of the litany of failings identified by the auditor-general in the delivery of this program. Below, for example, are just the first few of a run of “conclusions” and “findings” made by the auditor:

• A feature of A Step Up for Our Kids was a commitment to “performance based contracting” with a view to achieving “strengthened accountability, value and outcomes from purchased services”, CSD did not achieve this.

• A draft outcomes framework was developed and included in the service funding agreement with both ACT Together and Uniting CFACT with a requirement for the parties to develop outcomes and indicators to be used to measure performance. This did not occur, and the requirement was removed from the agreements.

• The Service Funding Agreements required the parties to develop a Performance Management System. This was not done, and the requirement was abandoned.

The auditor also found that “the term culturally appropriate had not been clearly defined and the relevant service funding agreements only mention minor and narrow aspects of culturally appropriate care.” 

These few examples of the thrust of this audit simply give the flavour of the auditor-general’s report on this important subject and I urge anyone with an interest in and concern for the welfare of our children to read the report. However, be aware that you will be appalled by what you read.

A further report, on Mental Health and Child Support Services for Young People in Canberra, was released by the auditor-general in May. 

This report and that which preceded it have one major feature in common: they are equally damning of the ACT government’s commitment to and management of (or in fact, lack thereof) these two fundamentally important services for the children and young people of Canberra. 

The auditor-general sets the scene for this latter report on page one of what is a report of about 100 pages with his initial finding, under the heading “Planning Mental Health Services”, namely:

“The ACT government and CHS health and mental health plans acknowledge young people are a priority group, but do not express any clear commitment to fund, plan for or enhance services for young people with moderate to severe mental health.”

Worryingly there is very little in the ensuing 100 pages of this audit that gives one confidence that the ACT government is seriously committed to meeting the mental health needs of our children.

I also find it rather disturbing that, as far as I am aware, neither of these two latter reports of the auditor-general have received any media coverage of substance or sufficiently motivated a single resident of the ACT to write a letter to the editor, let alone excite the interest or concern of a single politician. 

But to be fair, 60 per cent of us did vote “yes” in the referendum.

Julie Tongs, CEO of the Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services.