Qld Commits $60m to First Nation Home Ownership

The Queensland Government has made a multimillion-dollar commitment to help First Nations peoples into home ownership.

Co-designed by First Nations peoples and backed by an initial $61-million investment, the Our Place Action Plan 2024-27 includes a number of pathways to deliver home ownership and establishes a dedicated community housing upgrade program to be delivered in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Housing Queensland.

Opportunities for the First Nations building and construction industry and delivering apprenticeships and training is also part of the plan.

The Government revealed the plan on April 15 at the site of four completed homes on Brisbane’s northside built in partnership with Umpi Korumba Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Corporation for Housing.

Housing minister Meaghan Scanlon said aspects of the plan included a one-off subsidised modular homes program, a tailored sales-to-tenants program, home ownership education, and support for pre-purchase readiness and post-purchase sustainability.

“In response to calls from Indigenous community housing organisations, we’ll also create a funding program to help them maintain and upgrade homes as part of a $20-million allocation,” she said.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Housing Queensland chair Aunty Mary Doctor said they had been co-design partners of Our Place “and this ensures the approach to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander housing in Queensland is a shared responsibility by both government and the community-controlled sector”.

“The quality of Our Place shows significant substance because it has been informed and designed by Australia’s leading housing experts,” she said.

“This ... is exactly what we have been seeking—our peak body looks forward to being part of the implementation of the initiatives in Our Place, so that our work can be a beacon of what can be achieved when government and community work together.”

Minister for Employment and Small Business, Minister for Training and Skills Development and Gubbi Gubbi man Lance McCallum said his Government’s Big Build program was the biggest decade of infrastructure delivery in the Sunshine State’s history.

“Our Place is crucial to ensuring First Nations Queenslanders share in that prosperity,” he said.

“But it’s not just housing outcomes, we are training First Nations Queenslanders for the good jobs and better pay of our Big Build—right now there are 6500 First Nations apprentices and trainees in training and their VET participation rates are more than double non-Indigenous people.”