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key indigenous australian issues
| home | news lStatistics show little improvement in Indigenous life expectancy29 April 2008 - New figures on Indigenous health and welfare indicate little improvement in mortality rates. Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show Indigenous mortality rates between 2001 and 2005 were three times that of non-Indigenous people in Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin says the figures are shameful. "There is still a shocking 17-year life expectancy gap and I'm sorry to say there are far too many other gaps still clear from this report," she said. Ms Macklin has also criticised New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria and the ACT for a lack of data on Indigenous mortality. She says only national data will give a true sense of any progress being made. "This does reveal what I consider to be very serious gaps and if we're to address the whole disadvantage, the whole gap in Indigenous disadvantage, we certainly need to close this gap in data collection." Dr Mark Wenitong from the Cape York Health Council told a meeting in Brisbane that overseas models show the gap can be closed. "Indigenous people in other countries with similar historical contexts have really narrowed that life expectancy gap down to five to seven years," he said. "It's important that we look at some of those principles and take note of those." Source: ABC
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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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