Together we can end the Indigenous health crisis

poster: The Indigenous health crisis needs more than a quick fix

Watching the Prime Minister's Report Card on Closing the Gap

Tuesday 3 February 2009

The Close the Gap coalition eagerly awaits the Rudd Government's promised Report Card tomorrow on closing the gap in Indigenous life outcomes.

Chair of the Close the Gap steering committee and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma, whose 2005 Social Justice Report laid the groundwork for the Close the Gap campaign, said he expected the Report Card to deliver big ticks on some major initiatives.

"The Federal Government has made some significant initial commitments over the past 12 months to close the 17-year gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and I expect it deserves an 'A' for overall effort in this regard," Mr Calma said.

"However, we need to consolidate last year's efforts through a real partnership with Indigenous people, the health sector and state governments to develop and implement a comprehensive National Action Plan to ensure equality in health and life expectancy between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous Australians by 2030," Mr Calma said.

"The government's efforts so far give us hope that things are finally changing for the better.

"The National Apology to the Stolen Generations last February was followed by the historic signing of the Statement of Intent between the Australian Government, the Opposition, Indigenous and non-Indigenous health experts and the reconciliation movement to work together to achieve equality in health status and life expectancy."

Mr Calma said these steps, along with the establishment of the National Indigenous Health Equality Council, should be rated highly in tomorrow's Report Card, but urgent action was needed on the specific, time-bound commitments presented by the Close the Gap coalition to the Federal Government and Opposition in July last year as the blueprint to achieve the Prime Minister's goal of closing the 17-year gap.

"The Close the Gap coalition applauds the $1.6 billion commitment of new funding announced in November to improve Indigenous health and acknowledges this action alone is the biggest ever injection of new funding for Indigenous health," Mr Calma said. "We now look towards the dedicated Close the Gap COAG meeting this year."

Oxfam Australia Executive Director Andrew Hewett urged the Rudd Government to develop a comprehensive National Action Plan in partnership with Indigenous Australians. "Thousands of Australians have made Close the Gap the largest campaign to improve indigenous health," he said. "These supporters have made it clear they expect the Rudd Government to keep this issue a priority."

National Director of Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) David Cooper said: "The Rudd Government now has a unique opportunity to direct significant resources to expand the successful community controlled health sector and positively engage Indigenous communities in taking action on closing the gap."

Please contact: Louise McDermott - 0419 258 597 (for Tom Calma); Laurelle Keough - 0409 960 100 (for Andrew Hewett); David Cooper - 0418 486 310

How the campaign is going so far

In late November 2008, the Close The Gap coalition congratulated the Council of Australian Governments on taking substantial steps towards making health equality for Indigenous Australians a reality through the COAG committment of additional funding over 4 years. The Federal government committed an additional $806 million over 4 years, with the states and territories also contributing matched funds of $772 million totalling $1.6 billion. "This is a watershed moment in our efforts to close the life expectancy gap. Never have we seen such concentrated and determined effort from all governments working together. We applaud the emphasis from COAG on preventative health and access to primary care," Mr Calma said.

So far, around 120,000 Australians have urged the Government and opposition to close the gap via the HREOC, Oxfam, GetUp, Caritas and ANTaR websites.

Indigenous health stories in the news