Improving Performance Benchmarks. Existing performance benchmarks in the NPARIH provide only limited visibility of progress on property and tenancy management reforms, and do not enable effective assessment of performance where different service delivery arrangements are implemented across jurisdictions, i.e. direct delivery by government or delivery through a service provider network, such as the ACHPs in NSW. As a result, they do not drive performance effectively. To drive the reforms forward, it is essential to have an accurate understanding of trends, impacts and service standards of each key element of a property and tenancy management system over time. This will become more important over the remaining years of the NPARIH to ensure the 2015 benchmark is met. As the focus shifts from capital works targets to sustainability of the property and tenancy management system, protecting the massive investment of funding and maintaining the quality of the work done, it will be critical to understand what works well and where changes, further development or refinement of systems might be required. Equally, an understanding of the impact on tenants of the various strategies will be important. A small number of examples are emerging of family pride in moving from an overcrowded home in poor condition into a new home, buying new furniture and whitegoods and starting a garden, particularly in some locations where clusters or subdivisions of new houses have been built. It will be important to track how a rigorous and supportive tenancy management regime can influence and help tenants in remote communities retain and build on this pride. In discussions in Napranum near Weipa in Cape York, the review heard there was a noticeable link between the upgrades to residents’ houses and an increase in pride and care for the properties. Understanding this will also be important to assessment over time of any broader impacts of new housing on family wellbeing, particularly in relation to the Closing the Gap targets. In Galiwinku in Arnhem Land during the review visit, the emerging pride in the new houses in the new subdivision, built through the NPARIH, was evident in the number of gardens being cultivated by families who are now in those houses. Similarly, in Wadeye, growing gardens were visible around new houses and local people advised that gardening competitions had been held since residents moved into their new houses. It is also important to better understand the pressures jurisdictions are facing in m...
