The Minister for Indigenous Australians has launched a scathing attack on members of the Northern Territory Government, slamming its "callous and heartless" decision to close Darwin's largest homeless shelter.
Speaking in the Senate on Tuesday night, Malarndirri McCarthy criticised commentary from the Country Liberal Party (CLP) Government over the relocation of vulnerable Territorians from the 400-bed YiSSA short-stay accommodation facility — which officially closed on Monday — to a new site in Batchelor, 100km south of Darwin.
"The CLP government, after making the callous and heartless decision to close YiSSA, has been intent on blaming everyone but themselves for this decision," Senator McCarthy said, singling out comments from Child Protection Minister Robyn Cahill in the NT Parliament earlier on Tuesday.
The CLP Government announced in July that the YiSSA facility — run by the Yilli Rreung Housing Aboriginal Corporation — would close after it failed to reach an agreement with Ausco, which owns the demountables on the Crown land site.
The centre housed up to 400 residents, mainly Aboriginal people, including domestic violence survivors and people from remote communities who need access to life-saving medical treatment such as kidney dialysis.
The federal government offered up to $3.5 million to the NT Government to help purchase the facility, on the condition that it be run by Yilli Rreung Housing Aboriginal Corporation, which operated the facility alongside Mission Australia. This was rejected by the NT Government, with Senator McCarthy last week saying this was due to the caveat that the facility be run by an Indigenous organisation.
The Minister said she wrote to Ms Cahill several times in August, including with a revised offer on August 20.
"The Commonwealth would provide $3.5 million to support the Northern Territory Government to purchase the modular accommodation from Ausco," she said. "Under this proposal, the Northern Territory Government would own the assets. This was a genuine offer of financial support to help secure the future of the facility."
She said another letter was sent to Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro on August 31, reaffirming the Commonwealth's offer.
Rather than respond to the letters or engage in negotiations, the NT Government continued to "attack me through the media," Senator McCarthy said.
"The Chief Minister called it a waste of taxpayers' money. Minister Cahill said she wanted the money with no strings attached for it to be accepted. All the while, they insisted that a transitional plan would be forthcoming and that the hundreds of families in the facility would be looked after," she said.
In Parliament on Tuesday, Ms Cahill claimed there'd been an "absolutely misinformation campaign run by those on the other side, including federal members of parliament".
"I can categorically say, yes we did get a letter, but it was not an offer to help or an unbiased or straightforward offer," she said.
"It was an offer that said, 'I'll think about it and I might offer you some assistance only if you accept all these conditions', which included giving the infrastructure that we were to pay for, to a third party for nothing."
In response, Senator McCarthy said YiSSA was not a Commonwealth facility, but the federal government made an offer to help "out of basic common human decency and a desire to assist those in need".
"Not only were our offers rebuffed, we've been smeared and the residents have been demonised in a nasty display of arrogance," she said. "And the staff have lost their jobs. And where have they gone?"
The Northern Territory has the highest rate of homelessness in the country, at almost 12 times the national average. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up 87 per cent of the Territory's homeless population.
This week, residents were bussed to Batchelor despite concerns that the facilities for vulnerable residents would not be the same as those in Darwin.
YiSSA resident Tilathia Gore, 38, told AAP outside the centre on Monday that she had no choice but to take the bus to Batchelor.
"We're getting shipped out against our own will and we're hearing the facility out there is not even done up properly," she said.
"We've got kids, old ladies coming out with us, if anyone gets sick it's going to take forever for an ambulance to get out there. It's sad, it's heartbreaking, we've got everything here in Darwin for us. Going out there, it's going to be hard."
NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has defended the relocation. She argued that some YiSSA residents "have been working" or "have a home in a community".
"They're just not at it now," she told Darwin's Mix 104.9 "Government's not in the business of providing holiday accommodation for people...There's homelessness and homelessness, and we need to be talking about genuinely people who do not have a home and need a roof.
"This is about giving people a roof over their head when they need it. If they are going to reject that hand up in life, that is a matter for them. We cannot force people to make good decisions."
Senator McCarthy said she had heard on Tuesday afternoon that "30 people have moved into the new facility in Batchelor".
"It's an absolute scandal," she said. "From the YiSSA facility in Darwin I visited in July, which housed hundreds of families, to just 30 in Batchelor."
Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday night, the Minister said the decision to shut YiSSA would "follow this government of the Northern Territory all the way over the next few years".
"These families whom they have cast onto the streets and into overcrowded houses, they will not forget what you have done," she said.
"Nor will decent Australians, who can see what has happened here. [It] has been completely unjust, completely reprehensible...so callous and cruel to these individuals and their families, when they didn't need to be treated in that manner at all."
