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key indigenous australian issues
| home | news lUN to hear Aboriginal plight
The chairman of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) Tony McCartney said the group would raise its concerns about indigenous health during a major presentation to a UN sub-committee in May. He said Australia had come last on a report card for its treatment of its indigenous population in a study by a Canadian academic. "NACCHO was the instigator of the World Conference on Rural Health's Kuching Statement on the Health of Indigenous Populations in 1999," he said. "And we now intend to tell the world how bad the situation is in Australia." Mr McCartney's comments came in a statement after addressing today's World Health 2004 Conference in Melbourne. He said it was about time the Federal Government seriously tackled indigenous health issues. "If it is given the prominence it deserves it can be fixed - and fixed relatively quickly," he said. "If the government was to provide true equity in funding we could see significant improvement within 10 years." Mr McCartney said NACCHO wanted a commitment from the government that no unspent primary health care access program money be returned to consolidated revenue. It also wants funding proposals drawn up by state and territory governments to be approved as a matter of urgency and the doctor shortage to be addressed. "It remains a disgrace to this nation that in 2004 we see that the expected lifespan of Aboriginal people remains 20 years less than for other Australians," Mr McCartney said. "Overall, per capita, health funding for Aboriginal people is probably no more than that spent on non-Aboriginal people. "It may even be true that less money is spent per capita on Aboriginal people than non-Aboriginal people, yet we are at least three times sicker than other Australians." Source: The Australian
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