Death of three-year-old boy in social housing fire could hav...

An inquest in the Northern Territory will examine whether faulty electrical wiring in social housing caused a fire that killed a three-year-old Indigenous boy, after an audit of about 600 territory-owned properties found more than half needed immediate remedial work.

The inquest, which started in Alice Springs on Wednesday, is hearing evidence about the 2023 death of Mitchell Thomas in social housing in Larapinta, a western suburb of the town.

Paul Morgan, counsel assisting the coroner, said in his opening to the inquest that expert evidence suggested the fire was caused by electrical wiring in the ceiling space, though there were differing views about the precise cause.

He said that after the death the coroner suggested to the NT government that it audit other social housing built around 1987-88, the same time as the property where Thomas died.

Morgan told the inquest that preliminary results of that audit showed 21% of properties had one or more expired smoke detectors; 15% had one of more faulty residual current devices, a safety mechanism which prevents against shock and fire; 10% had a major earthings system fault; and 18% had a cable insulation fault.

Overall 58% of the properties audited required immediate remediation works, he said.

“Given those preliminary findings, your honour will be eager to hear what has been done in response by the responsible government departments, what plans are in place to remedy the issues identified, and what commitments have been made to keep electrical systems in social housing safe,” Morgan said.

The court also heard that after a 2007 inquest into the death of a young girl by electrocution the government was urged to establish a database to record accidents and incidents, as well as fires within public housing.

That inquest also recommended that the government shift “its emphasis from a reactive to a pro-active approach by increasing the emphasis, and expenditure, on planned maintenance, in the expectation of decreasing the level of unplanned repairs”.

Morgan said that database had not been maintained, and records relating to the Larapinta house were also incomplete.

“Your honour will therefore be eager to hear … what is being done about those previous coroner’s recommendations.

“A further issue that has arisen during the preparation for this inquest is that it appears that record-keeping for inspections and repairs and maintenance to the home which burnt down may not be complete.

“That creates obvious issues in terms of any investigation inquiring into the state of repair of the home and social housing generally. The inquest will therefore inquire into the reasons for that and what steps have been taken by the government departments responsible to remedy the situation.”

In 2021, a coroner found an 11-year-old Aboriginal boy died when he was electrocuted in a home that had not been properly maintained or inspected for more than 25 years by the NT government-owned corporation responsible.

The deputy CEO at Aboriginal Housing NT, Nathan Evans, told Guardian Australia, speaking generally, that the territory’s maintenance system was not structured to support the repairs needed to be done en masse, with the government spending thousands on sending out single contractors to fix just one issue instead of checking them all regularly.

“What we need to do is build more cyclical repairs and maintenance programs, so that twice a year all these sorts of things are being checked by tradies, by sparkies, plumbers,” Evans said.

“So the issues are picked up and fixed, rather than leaving it to the last minute when there’s a catastrophic event.”

Evans said nearly 80% of all damage in housing across the public sector in the Northern Territory is because of poor repairs and maintenance. This, combined with unprecedented levels of overcrowding, can cause safety issues, he said.

“The [houses] are often poorly ventilated and poorly maintained,” he said.

“They’re hot boxes in the desert, they rust out on the coast, poor ventilation has a huge impact on [people]. It creates really unhappy and unhealthy living conditions.”

The NT government has been contacted for comment.