Darwin in the dry season is the place to be as meetings, conferences and commissions descend on us to take advantage of the weather.
Over 1000 delegates arrived in Darwin for the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) National Housing Conference in August exposing them to the extent of our housing and homelessness challenges in the NT. Adequate funding, community involvement in design and planning and the review of outdated tenancy legislation were called for in response to the NT’s continuing housing crisis.
The Royal Commission Aged Care Quality and Safety also came to town in July but was less engaged with issues in the NT. DCLS with the support of NTCOSS worked with other stakeholders to petition the Commission to make time to actually hear NT stories while they were here. They eventually allocated one day to local issues!
Our early engagement with the Disability Royal Commission has been entirely different, with the Commission and its staff being keen to engage and develop a flexible approach to ensuring they are well informed about the issues impacting people with disability across the country. DCLS will be collating information and stories for submissions to the Commission over the coming months.
--