'I just live on noodles': Report reveals scale of NT cost-of-living crisis

For an Alice Springs grandmother who receives a disability pension, the struggle to afford groceries between pay cheques is constant, with the cost of food "too high".

Shirley Napurrula Miller is among the nearly 50 per cent of the Northern Territory's population who experienced food insecurity because of rising prices in 2025, according to a new report.

"Sometimes I can't buy groceries, or meat, or anything," she said.

"I just live on noodles."

The report by the NT Council of Social Service (NTCOSS), released today, examines changes in the cost of living between 2016 and 2026 across key spending areas of housing, utilities, transport and food.

It shows every day, across all spending areas, many Territorians are having to make impossible money decisions and weigh up what they must prioritise to live.

Hunger relief charity Foodbank Australia estimates that 46 per cent of NT households experienced food insecurity in 2025, above the national average of 33 per cent, according to the NTCOSS report.

In remote areas, the cost of food is even more prohibitive than in urban centres such as Darwin and Alice Springs, where prices have also risen substantially.

"In 2023, the average cost of a healthy food basket was 40 per cent more in remote stores than in a supermarket," the report states.

A decade of rising costs

The 10-year comparison report found that while incomes have increased in real terms, the cost of essentials has too, making it harder for everyone — especially those on low incomes — to meet basic needs.

Power costs have risen 18 per cent and those on prepaid plans, predominantly First Nations people in urban and remote public housing, are having their electricity cut off more frequently, with an average of 2,284 more disconnections per month last year compared to 2019 to 2020.

Further compounding cost pressures for those already on the poverty line, the report states the prepaid electricity price is higher than for standard postpaid billing to account for customers not paying a fixed daily charge.

According to the report, there were 103,648 involuntary self-disconnections in major centres in the NT last year.

"Affordability challenges are a key driver of such disconnections," the report states.

"Being without power for extended amounts of time can have a significant impact on people's health and wellbeing."

Ms Miller said she had faced disconnection many times and Aboriginal families often lent on each other to share their limited incomes and keep the power on, particularly in the heat over summer.

Her daughter, Linda Lechleitner, who lives between Alice Springs and a remote Aboriginal homeland near the community of Papunya, about a 3-hour drive away, said she worried about electricity costs amid a heating climate.

"It's more than the government payment that they give you, the Centrelink payment doesn't carry people through fortnightly," she said.

"Every little dollar counts … it's not carrying through to the next fortnight or the next week, they're having to borrow money from family and then pay that back.

"So they're never in front."

'We're in crisis'

The report reveals rents have skyrocketed 55 per cent over the past decade.

Meanwhile, the NT's social housing stock only increased by 4 per cent between 2017 and 2025, while social housing applications increased by 37 per cent over the same period.

The report shows transport costs have also shot up, with an 80-litre tank of diesel now costing $28 more in Darwin and an extra $88 in Alice Springs.

"We're in crisis," Ms Lechleitner said.

"You're always catering and your food doesn't last long, because you're always feeding other family members that are struggling at the moment as well.

"And then the fuel, it's ridiculous."

Report co-author Jonathan Pilbrow said he was concerned about "poverty premiums" paid by those on income support, who could not afford to pay for things like car registration up front: copping extra fees if they paid monthly.

He said every time people paid their registration, whether monthly or yearly, they also had to pay a $16 administration fee, meaning those who paid more frequently were also paying more overall.

"You end up paying $164 more, if you're poor, because you can't afford to pay it upfront," he said.

"That's one area the government can look at immediately to relieve cost-of-living pressure."

Key recommendations of the report include raising the rates of income support payments, including JobSeeker, Youth Allowance, the Parenting Payment and the Remote Area Allowance for those living in the territory's most remote places.

While the federal government's low-cost essentials subsidy scheme for remote communities was introduced for 30 staple grocery items in remote stores, NTCOSS recommends the government extend the list of items to include more fresh and frozen meat, fruit and vegetables and nutrient-dense baby food.

Call to increase welfare

NTCOSS interim chief executive Claire Pirrett said the report showed those on the lowest incomes were struggling the most.

"We need to recognise that we have unacceptable levels of poverty here and people all over the Territory are experiencing significant hardship," she said.

"All levels of government need to take meaningful steps to ease pressure on people.

"By identifying how lives have changed over the last decade for households in the NT, this report also identifies the levers decision-makers can pull to provide relief for families and individuals."

Mr Pilbrow said lifting people out of poverty would mean raising income support payments.

"People will continue in poverty, that makes it really difficult for people to raise their families, to look after the kids, put food on the table … all the things that we need to do when we're raising families," he said.

"There's a poverty premium for living in remote areas, and there's a poverty premium for many people living in regional areas.

"There are things the government can do to address this."

Ms Lechleitner, a mother and grandmother who supports a number of children, said it felt harder to afford to live now than it did 10 years ago.

"Our politicians are all over here bickering and fighting about where the money goes, but the little people on the ground … people which are in crisis, how are you reflecting what you're saying in Canberra?" she said.