Yingiya Guyula, Yolngu leader and independent candidate for the Northern Territory seat of Nhulunbuy, has slammed the Country Liberal Party (CLP) and the Labor party as "offering false hope" to Aboriginal people in remote areas, saying they "don't deserve any black votes" after years of dysfunction.
Guyula's comments come after he travelled through small homeland communities throughout the top end in the lead-up to this weekend's NT election and found people living "like animals".
"We have been out there on the mobile polling on homelands this past three days and these politicians and candidates should really go and have a long hard look at their failures," Guyula said.
"There is no work, no proper roads, school attendance is poor, and yet the government and the former Labor government promised they would fix these problems on homelands, including building new houses. People are living like animals."
The past four years of CLP government have been marred by scandal and controversy.
In 2012 Labor was ousted after the CLP saw a sudden spike in popularity due to an intensive campaign in remote and regional areas, garnering support from traditional Labor voters including the Aboriginal community.
In 2013 Adam Giles, the current chief minister, rolled Terry Mills while he was in Japan.
Then, in 2015, the CLP ousted Giles in a late-night coup, installing a new chief minister. Despite the lack of confidence from his own party, Giles refused to resign. Several CLP ministers have also been accused of misusing taxpayer money.
In July shocking footage of Aboriginal children being subjected to brutal treatment in the Don Dale juvenile detention centre outside of Darwin was aired on the ABC’s Four Corners program. The federal government has since announced a royal commission into the treatment of children in detention in the NT.
Giles claimed he was unaware of the incidents despite the fact that reports were given to the government last year and dismissed by attorney-general John Elferink.
The chief minister then accused the ABC of deliberately airing the footage in the lead up to the election to sabotage the CLP at the polls.
This election both Labor and the CLP have made hefty promises to the Aboriginal community when it comes to desperately needed Indigenous housing.
Giles had committed $2 billion to building 2,000 homes with investment from the federal government and the private sector. Labor has pledged just over $1 billion for remote housing projects over the next decade.
Despite decades of promises to address remote Indigenous housing from both major parties, both in the NT and federally, the situation remains grim.
BuzzFeed News travelled to Arnhem Land earlier this year and found chronic overcrowding, people living in third-world conditions, and whole communities desperate for housing despite billions of dollars in investment over the past 10 years.
“I am a disabled woman and I live with 10 family members. We all use the same toilet and shower, I need my own house and space. We keep asking for houses from the government but we get nothing,” Julie Munungurr, a Yolngu elder in Yirrkala, told BuzzFeed News after asking that photos of her house be shown to politicians.
Guyula, who lives in a remote community, says Aboriginal people in Arnhem Land will go to the polls this weekend disheartened, with little hope of things changing.
"Look," Guyula said, "our people are just being used for election purposes and then thrown away, they turn their backs on us."