At this time no new houses built after 2 years of intervention
Indigenous housing program defended
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No houses have yet been built in remote Indigenous communities under a $672 million plan. [File image]. (AAP: Karen Michelmore)
The Northern Territory housing department has defended the amount of money that has been spent on the administration of a new housing program for Indigenous people.
In 2007 the Federal Government announced it would spend $672 million on a housing project to be managed by the Territory Government, but so far no new houses have been built.
The Territory Opposition says nearly 15 per cent of the money will be spent on management, although the Government disputes the figure.
The housing department's chief executive, David Ritchie, says some of the program's costs are unavoidable.
"In any comparison of cost, it's important to compare apples with apples.
"So it's unrealistic to expect the costs of this program to be equivalent to say one built in the suburban environments of Darwin or Alice Springs.
He says the department has taken its time because it is important to get the housing right.
"The housing [is] for the 30 to 50 year time frame that public housing is to be built out rather than the less than 10 years, which is what had tended to happen previously.
"So there was a lot of work necessary in the field, not only talking to communities, but also talking through just what had worked and what hadn't worked."
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