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key indigenous australian issues
| home | news lBeazley will stake his reputation on indigenous health careBy Lindsay Murdoch, Wadeye 4 August 2006 - Kim Beazley has promised to make Aboriginal disadvantage his personal responsibility if he is elected prime minister. During a visit to the indigenous community of Wadeye yesterday, the Opposition Leader pledged that within six years of being elected he would bring the standards of health care for Aboriginal people to those now enjoyed by other Australians. He said he was ready to risk his reputation on fixing indigenous health. "Unless a prime minister is prepared to risk his reputation, this will not be fixed," he said. Mr Beazley made the pledge after Pat Rebgetz, the only permanent doctor in Wadeye, told him that between $1 billion and $2 billion was needed to fix a chronic shortage of houses in remote communities. Dr Rebgetz said that people's health in Wadeye and other remote communities was as bad as almost anywhere in the world, including the highest recorded level of rheumatic heart disease. "It's a tragic situation," he said. "You can't fix the chronic overcrowding in houses by building five houses. You have to build 50 … you need a massive injection of funds." An average of 17 people are living in each house in Wadeye, the Northern Territory's fifth-largest town, where violence among clan-based gangs erupted in May. The community's death rate is three times the Australian average, with the median age at death only 46. Yesterday, Wadeye's gang members were nowhere to be seen. Mr Beazley was greeted by cheering schoolchilden and clan elders. Mr Beazley told The Age that while he would effectively be his own Aboriginal affairs minister, there would still be a minister to administer the portfolio. "You need a commitment," Mr Beazley said. "I have decided I will make a commitment. That is, that within two terms (of being elected), I will bring the standard of health care for indigenous people to First World status like the rest of the country." Source: The Age
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its one year on from the Australian Governments controversial intervention into NT Indigenous communities
action Roll back, listen to Indigenous community voices speaking about the intervention |
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