THE Bligh government’s plan to open the way for Aboriginal home ownership in remote north Queensland settlements is failing, as not a single home loan has been signed since a new leasing scheme was introduced 18 months ago.
Native title laws are being blamed for the bureaucratic bottleneck that has left Aborigines who are keen to own a home forced to remain in the public housing system.
The statutory body that facilitates home loans for Aborigines living in remote communities, Indigenous Business Australia, says it is “ready to write home loans tomorrow” for a number of families, but negotiations over native title have stalled their plans.
IBA general manager Ron Morony said achieving home ownership had been much more difficult for Aborigines in Queensland than it had for those in remote communities in the Northern Territory, where 12 home loans had been signed and another 29 people were waiting for loans to be approved.
“Our frustration has often been just getting through the technical stuff of leasing,” Mr Morony said. “What is kicking in is native title rights, which we have got to get clear with the traditional owners before we can actually agree to these leases.”
IBA says it is negotiating with eight communities in north Queensland, including Mapoon, Palm Island, Yarrabah, Wujal Wujal, Hopevale, Cherbourg and Doomadgee on home ownership, but until the land issues are resolved “these discussions cannot progress past expressions of interest or inquiry stage”.
The Queensland parliament passed laws in July last year that were billed as the vehicle to enable Aboriginal home ownership in remote communities on land held in trust by Aboriginal councils. The legislation allowed for individual 99-year residential and commercial leases to be signed in remote communities, and the new laws were touted as the key to resolving land tenure issues and allowing economic development. However, it is indigenous councils and not the Queensland government itself which are able to grant leases.
The Queensland government’s Resource Management Indigenous Services executive director James McNamara said there were five applications for 99-year residential leases being assessed and processed by councils and trustees, with the assistance of the Department of Environment and Resource Management.
“Processing 99-year leases is a matter between the individual applicant and trustee of the land,” Mr McNamara said.
Mayor Percy Neal of Yarrabah near Cairns blamed delays by
the local land council for the failure to progress 99-year lease applications.
“I think just about everybody wants to own their own home,” Mr Neal said. “Yarrabah council has always pushed the issue that we want to see people get their own homes, but these guys — the state, the land council — are continually stuffing around.”