Emma Garlett: Aboriginal public housing tenants left out in the cold

Without safe, healthy housing, we will never close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Without a stable and clean place to live, we can have no expectation of good physical and mental health. But thousands of West Australian public housing tenants in Aboriginal communities are continuing to suffer, sharing their falling-apart homes with pests, without access to safe drinking water. These are conditions that would be unacceptable anywhere else in the State. But in the hundreds of Aboriginal communities across WA, they’re commonplace. The issue has been forced back into the public consciousness courtesy of a class action brought against the WA Government by Slater and Gordon. The class action accuses the Housing Authority and State of WA of breaching multiple residential tenancy, contract and consumer protection laws over the last 14 years. The lawsuit alleges that WA authorities failed to maintain, repair and carry out structural and other improvements to public housing rental properties and to do so within a reasonable time. I have seen first-hand the state of many of these houses in WA — and their appalling condition would come as a shock to many West Australians. There are cockroach-infested shacks with boarded-up windows. If you’re lucky enough to have plumbing that works, there’s a good chance it leaks. Many have no working toilets or showers, or even a place to cook food. Some have exposed electrical wiring, a significant danger, particularly for families with children. Many homes are mouldy and are infested by rodents and insects. Others are without working lights or doors that lock. Some are missing doors entirely. In some communities, residents can’t drink the water because of uranium contamination fears. All the while, tenants are paying significant amounts of rent to the Government. For homes that are unsafe, unacceptable and unliveable. The class action will cover all Aboriginal public housing tenants in the Wheatbelt, Mid West, Gascoyne, Goldfields-Esperance, Pilbara, West Kimberley and East Kimberley unless they choose to opt-out. It also includes Aboriginal tenants who are living in Derby, Broome, Kununurra and Exmouth. These are West Australians who should expect much more from their Government. They have the right to safe, healthy housing for themselves and their families, just as West Australians in the State’s metropolitan areas do. Housing is one of the most important planks of a healthy society. How can we expect children to be healthy and happy if they are living in a home infested with rodents? How can we expect them to succeed at school if they don’t have lighting or access to a shower at home? And how can we expect their parents to go to work if they’re laying in bed at night worrying who might walk through the broken door, or how they’re going to provide food for their families without access to a working kitchen? Until Aboriginal public housing tenants and their families are provided with clean, safe and healthy homes, they are being set up to fail.