Territorians hard hit as cost of living continues to increase
29 Jan 2025
Source: NTCOSS Media Release
NTCOSS’ latest Cost of Living Factsheets published in October 2024, (just after the last edition of Seniors Voice went to press) reveal how hard the cost of living crisis has hit the Territory as food, transport and housing prices continue to rise.
Territorians are being hit harder by surging food, transport and housing costs. NTCOSS’ Cost of Living Factsheets show Territory residents on low incomes and those living remotely are especially affected, with frontline services increasingly stretched. NTCOSS and its members including Anglicare, Foodbank, NT Shelter and Council of the
Ageing (COTA NT) are calling on the Northern Territory government to ensure Territorians can meet their basic needs; to invest in the capacity of the community services sector to ease the cost of living burden; and to implement the following recommendations and those contained in the Cost of Living Factsheets (click below to view).
FOOD
• Ensuring remote houses have adequate facilities to support safe food storage and preparation by providing reliable power, safe drinking water and culturally responsive design
• Funding for the social services sector that reflects the real cost of service delivery.
TRANSPORT
• Increase the Motor Vehicle Concession to support people on low incomes to afford the cost of registration
• Introduce concession rates for users of remote bus services and ensure consistency of fees.
HOUSING
• Improve the Residential Tenancies Act 1999 (NT) so Territory renters have at least the same rights as the rest of Australia
• Increase the availability of youth specific housing across the NT.
“We are nowhere close to servicing daily demand for requests of food vouchers and emergency relief. We could double or even triple the daily offer and still not meet
demand.” – Vicki Borzi, Manager. Financial Counselling Anglicare NT
“We all know that independence is vital for seniors and having your own motor vehicle is crucial for this. The concession provided by the NT Seniors Card and NT Concessions for vehicle registration has not changed since its inception! Both need to be indexed to CPI to assist ALL Territorians with the cost of living crisis.” – Sue Shearer, CEO, COTA NT
“… We need to bring the NT Act in line with other jurisdictions by ensuring minimum standards for rental premises and the establishment of an independent bond board….
As we’ve long said, 30% of all land released by the Crown for residential use should be for social and affordable housing. This would mean the creation of more well-located
affordable housing which has a number of benefits, including adequately housed key workers located where the jobs are.”– Annie Taylor, Head of Operations NT Shelter
The full release is published here. This abridged version of the release was published in Seniors Voice Jan-March 2025 edition.