Housing policy in remote Indigenous communities: how politics obstructs good policy

Abstract

When it comes to issues of housing policy, remote Indigenous housing often presents the extreme case. The failures of housing policy are most acute in remote Indigenous Australia, but despite the need to learn from the policy mistakes of the past, there has been little detailed analysis of the policy history. Through documentary and empirical analysis, we show that policies have either failed to be adapted to cultural and geographic contexts or, when they have been culturally responsive, they have lacked attention to the complexities of service delivery. Despite differences in policy settings, the long view is one of the normalization of Indigenous communities, although research points to the need for culturally appropriate arrangements. We argue that rather than politically motivated short-termism, governments need to develop a medium- to long-term approach that approaches policy solutions incrementally, builds capacity within the state and Indigenous communities, and is based on the evidence.