PAPUNYA, NT – The Northern Territory Government has firmly rejected suggestions that homes regularly hitting internal temperatures of 47 degrees fail to meet basic habitability standards, with a spokesperson clarifying the heat is “actually a feature.”
“What our clients across remote NT communities call ‘unsafe’ we prefer to call ‘thermally engaging'” the spokesperson said. The comments follow a Federal Court action filed by four Papunya residents represented by the Human Rights Law Centre.
The Warlpiri and Luritja applicants argue decades of government neglect have left them in homes built three decades ago that become ovens for months at a time. Most lack working insulation shading or air conditioning.
The Government conceded the Department had been working on the matter for some time. “Our remote housing strategy is built on a 10-year plan to maybe one day consider possibly insulating a wall” the spokesperson confirmed. “We are currently in year nine.”
The same Government routinely insists on full habitability standards for its own offices in Darwin where executives have been seen leaving the building if the air conditioner drops to 22 degrees.
Asked why the standards were different the spokesperson clarified that Papunya residents simply had a “different relationship with discomfort” and that requiring a fan was “incompatible with self-determination.”
Pre-paid power cards which automatically disconnect homes the moment a family runs out of credit were described as a “world-leading energy literacy program” that teaches children “the value of electricity by removing it during heatwaves.”
The Department added it was “deeply committed” to climate-safe housing and had taken the meaningful first step of issuing a Reconciliation Action Plan with a watermarked thermometer on the cover.
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