Court upholds NT remote tenants' right to clean drinking water
December 27, 2024 9:19 AM Subscribe
Court upholds Northern Territory remote tenants' right to clean drinking water.
The NT Court of Appeal has upheld a ruling that the territory government is legally responsible for providing safe drinking water in remote communities. Lawyers say the decision could have implications for a wider class action on remote housing.
The Northern Territory Court of Appeal has upheld a ruling that the NT government is legally responsible for providing safe drinking water in remote communities, laying the foundation for a wider class action over remote housing.
Residents of the Central Australian remote community of Laramba first took the NT government to court in 2019 over the level of uranium in their drinking water, which was then three times above the Australian standard.
The NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NTCAT) initially ruled in the government’s favour, finding it was the NT’s Power and Water Corporation that was responsible for water supply, but Laramba residents were successful in their 2023 appeal to the NT Supreme Court.
The NT government challenged that decision in the NT Court of Appeal earlier this year, arguing it was responsible only for housing itself, and it was Power and Water Corporation's legal responsibility to provide safe drinking water.
On Christmas Eve, the court rejected that appeal.
In supporting the 2023 Supreme Court decision, Court of Appeal judges Judith Kelly, Sonia Brownhill and Meredith Day Huntingford agreed that water quality was a "habitability issue", and fell under the NT government’s legal obligations to tenants.
"If the uranium levels in the water supplied to the premises posed an actual and appreciable risk to the health and/or safety of the tenants in their ordinary residential day-to-day use of the premises, then those premises would not be habitable", the judges said in their ruling.
"It is not relevant … whether or not the water is supplied by a third party with statutory responsibility for the supply of essential services such as water."
The Northern Territory Court of Appeal has upheld a ruling that the NT government is legally responsible for providing safe drinking water in remote communities, laying the foundation for a wider class action over remote housing.
Residents of the Central Australian remote community of Laramba first took the NT government to court in 2019 over the level of uranium in their drinking water, which was then three times above the Australian standard.
The NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NTCAT) initially ruled in the government’s favour, finding it was the NT’s Power and Water Corporation that was responsible for water supply, but Laramba residents were successful in their 2023 appeal to the NT Supreme Court.
The NT government challenged that decision in the NT Court of Appeal earlier this year, arguing it was responsible only for housing itself, and it was Power and Water Corporation's legal responsibility to provide safe drinking water.
On Christmas Eve, the court rejected that appeal.
In supporting the 2023 Supreme Court decision, Court of Appeal judges Judith Kelly, Sonia Brownhill and Meredith Day Huntingford agreed that water quality was a "habitability issue", and fell under the NT government’s legal obligations to tenants.
"If the uranium levels in the water supplied to the premises posed an actual and appreciable risk to the health and/or safety of the tenants in their ordinary residential day-to-day use of the premises, then those premises would not be habitable", the judges said in their ruling.
"It is not relevant … whether or not the water is supplied by a third party with statutory responsibility for the supply of essential services such as water."
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posted by scruss at 12:47 PM on December 27 [1 favorite]