Comments on: Public housing rents in remote areas

By: Kieran Finnane

Kieran Finnane — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 02:30:19 +0000

I have posted a separate report following up on this issue.

See http://www.alicespringsnews.com.au/2012/10/18/trying-to-get-the-numbers-right-rents-in-remote-areas/

By: Ralph Folds

Ralph Folds — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 06:28:58 +0000

Yes, cumulative payment data showing actual rent collected would be interesting because remote community people’s place of residence is very fluid. I can’t see how the shires could keep up with it in order to collect rent on the basis of where individuals are living.

By: Kieran Finnane

Kieran Finnane — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 08:34:58 +0000

I have invited the ABS to respond to Bob Durnan’s comment. As there’s a public holiday in Canberra on Monday, the response is unlikely to come before Tuesday, October 9.

By: Bob Durnan

Bob Durnan — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 04:24:07 +0000

Given Andy Kirkman’s explanation, in this article, about the household poll (minimum amount per person) method used to calculate rent in remote housing, a much fairer and more sensible way for the ABS to represent data about the rent payment levels in the remote shires would be for them to show the cumulative payments per week or fortnight per house, and display the average of these totals for Barkly, Central Desert and MacDonnell Shires in the graph used above.
To do otherwise is very misleading, and simply serves to feed negative views about Aboriginal people in the remote communities, and so is extremely unfair, and even verging on being defamatory.