A failure to fix overcrowding in remote community housing in the Northern Territory should prompt urgent action and a $2 billion commitment, Indigenous group the Central Land Council says.
The limited progress on remote housing targets has been highlighted in a report from the Australian National Audit Office, which says an extra 1857 new homes are needed to address overcrowding.
The audit found 54.1 per cent of houses in remote communities in the Northern Territory were still considered overcrowded, down from 58.1 per cent in 2017.
It said 20 months before the end of the five-year partnership between the Territory and federal government to address the issue, only 363 of the agreed 1950 bedrooms had been completed.
The CLC said the report showed the Closing the Gap target of 88 per cent of Aboriginal people living in homes that were not overcrowded by 2031 was far from on track.
"The audit report found that more than half of our houses are still overcrowded," Chairman Sammy Wilson said.
"Overcrowding kills, as this (COVID-19) pandemic has shown once again because our growing families can't safely isolate from the virus."
The council urged the major parties to commit to increasing investment in remote housing if they win the upcoming federal election.
"To save lives and improve the life chances of our people, we need the federal and NT governments between them to spend at least $2 billion over the next five years," CLC Chief Executive Les Turner said.
"This will build 2000 new houses and make another 4000 houses more liveable in communities and homelands across the region."
Mr Turner said governments need to stop pointing the finger at each other and work with the NT's Aboriginal representative organisations to build a sustainable Aboriginal housing sector.
"The governments need to support remote community housing trials that will reveal the true cost of shifting to Aboriginal-controlled housing and invest in re-building the sector," he said.
Among its recommendations, the audit office said the housing plan should be revised to provide accurate information on how the proposed outcomes will be achieved and that a risk-based assurance process be implemented to verify the delivery of capital works.
The National Indigenous Australians Agency, which administers funding for remote housing, has agreed to all the audit office recommendations.
Under current arrangements, the federal government committed $550 million to the plan over five years ending in 2023, while the NT government agreed to match that investment.
