The NT's Court of Appeal confirmed this week that the NT government, through its public housing landlord, is legally required to supply water for its tenants, and the water supplied must be safe for drinking.

In 2019, residents of the remote community of Laramba, west of Alice Springs, took their landlord, the NT Chief Executive Officer (Housing), to the NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NTCAT) over concerns about their drinking water.

It was common ground that that water contained uranium at levels three times the maximum level set out in the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. Expert evidence filed by the tenants showed this was damaging to the kidneys of those who drank the water over an extended period.

The NTCAT found the landlord was not responsible for providing safe drinking water to its tenants. That decision was overturned by the NT Supreme Court in October 2023, who found the provision of safe drinking water fell within a landlord's obligations.

In November this year, the NT government challenged the Supreme Court ruling, arguing that as a landlord it was not required to supply any running water to its leased premises. Its alternative argument was that landlords are not responsible for ensuring the drinking quality of any water that is supplied.

In its decision delivered on Christmas Eve, the Court of Appeal rejected the arguments of the NT government landlord. It found that the landlord's obligation to ensure habitability requires that they arrange for the supply of water and ensure it is safe. It highlighted that houses in Laramba were fitted with taps, toilets and other facilities to deliver water, and tenants could reasonably expect such services.

The Court found that: "If the uranium levels in the water supplied to the premises posed an actual and appreciable risk to the health and/or safety of the tenants in their ordinary residential day to day use of the premises, then those premises would not be habitable."

The Court of Appeal decision this week authoritatively resolves a "legal black hole". Until now, no government department or agency accepted responsibility for providing safe drinking water to people living in remote communities. Now, there can be no doubt that role falls on the NT government landlord.

The decision also opens an avenue for the estimated 250,000 Indigenous people who are currently unable to reliably access safe and healthy water across the NT and beyond, to seek legal redress and compensation.

The residents bringing the case were represented by Australian Lawyers for Remote Aboriginal Rights (ALRAR) and barrister, Matthew Albert, at no cost to the community or its members. Grata Fund has provided funding and support to the community throughout the legal journey.

Dan Kelly, Solicitor at Australian Lawyers for Remote Aboriginal Rights, said "the Laramba community has won a landmark case, and it will hopefully benefit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Australia".

"We know many communities are denied the most basic of human rights, which is access to clean and safe drinking water," he said.

"The Court's decision makes clear that if government does not take action, they can be held to account.

"In more than 500 remote Indigenous communities across Australia drinking water isn't routinely tested and often it isn't safe to drink. The Court's decision has confirmed that Indigenous peoples have as much right as any other Australian to safe drinking water.

"This case is not just a win for the Laramba community, but also for the legal rights of all remote Aboriginal communities and renters across the Northern Territory."

Mr Kelly said the decision establishes the NT Housing has an obligation to provide safe drinking water to its tenants.

"Remote tenants will now be able to demand their water quality be improved if it does not meet basic safety standards," he said.

Four years after the Laramba community's ground-breaking legal action, the NT government responded by constructing a new water treatment plant only for Laramba. It opened in April 2023.

Tenant advocates noted that while this resolved the issue for Laramba, it did not address the issue of who was legally responsible for ensuring a safe drinking water supply nor who will compensate tenants for the health risks that came with uranium-enriched drinking water, particularly to the kidneys of long-term residents.

Mr Kelly said the NT government had long dodged responsibility for protecting the basic rights of Aboriginal communities.

"For more than a decade no government department took responsibility or accepted liability for the water they were delivering to remote Aboriginal communities," he said.

"It has taken lengthy legal action for this remote community to access their basic rights to safe drinking water. This should not be the case in the 21st century in a country as wealthy as Australia."