The Tongan Defence Service is to help Australia provide housing facilities to Australian Aborigines. Announcing the scheme, the Australian Defence Minister, Senator Robert Hill, said the Defence Department.'s Aboriginal Army Community Assistance Program (AACAP) will be boosted with engineers from the Tonga Defence Service (TDS) joining Army's 21 Construction Squadron from next week. A team of 10 engineers from Tonga is being sponsored under the Defence Cooperation Program and will assist in the construction of houses in the remote communities of Injinoo and Umagico, near Bamaga, on Cape York Peninsula in far north Queensland. "Defence has a long history of engagement with the security forces in the South Pacific region through the Defence Cooperation Program; This includes assistance in strategic planning, training and infrastructure development," Senator Hill said. "The Defence Cooperation Program is an important feature of Australia's Defence relationships throughout the region. Through the program, Australia works closely with its partners to build the capacity of regional security forces and promote mutual security objectives. The Minister said that this exercise follows a very successful joint exercise held in 2003, in which the TDS Rural Development Unit worked closely with members of 21 Construction Squadron to build a new Defence Headquarters building in Tonga, funded through the DCP. "This attachment will build on the skills transfer achieved through the earlier joint exercise and help to enhance operational cooperation between the ADF and the TDS," Senator Hill said. "It will also help to develop reciprocal ADF/TDS project planning, construction management and construction skills, and improve cross-cultural understanding between the TDS and the Australian Army, while providing real benefits to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The AACAP is a cooperative initiative between ATSIS, the Department of Health and Ageing and the Department of Defence to provide assistance to remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in order to improve community environmental health conditions. The Army would support AACAP through the provision of project management, construction, and health and training outcomes to indigenous communities in the Northern Peninsula areas.