Northern Territory Police Management is under fire after it has been revealed that a home it utilised to house officers had mould issues as far back as 2003, and recommended tenants run air-conditioning to resolve the issue.
President of the NT Police Association, Paul McCue, said that the state of police housing in the NT more broadly was poor.
The child of an officer was in intensive care for 11 days due to a medical episode, which the family believes is due to what they have described as “rampant” mould growth in Pirlangimpi.
The episode and hospitalisation occurred in 2019, but Mr McCue says the issues had been raised long before the home was allocated to that particular family.
“The mould issue in the house used by Mr Thomson (the child’s father) and his family was first reported to the Department in 2003, some 14 years before the Thomson family first moved in,” he said.
“There were significant amounts of mould in the hallway and cupboards, and this is an issue which has plagued this, and other houses, for far too long.
“When members first raised the issue, they were told to leave the air conditioners running for 24 hours, and that should resolve the problem.”
According to an NT Police spokesman, a contractor was engaged in 2019 to report on the state of the property.
“Following that report, a thorough clean of the property was undertaken,” he said.
“NT Worksafe is now reviewing the matter, and it’s appropriate that we leave Worksafe to complete their enquiries.”
“Without pre-empting the outcome of any investigations underway, it should never take this sort of a tragic situation to highlight the need to house people appropriately if you want them working in remote areas,” he said.
Mr McCue noted that inaction by “successive governments” had seen the neglect of police housing, and he noted that it was “why we are still using shipping containers in some locations after 15 years which are not fit for purpose.”