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A new report has ranked Australia as the least successful of wealthy countries working to improve the health of its indigenous people. Another study, released on the same day, reports a significant increase in the life expectancy of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory.
In related news, former Prime Minister Paul Keating's 1992 speech on Aboriginal injustice was declared Australia's most unforgettable speech, in a recent radio survey.
Research details
According to the Close the gap: Solutions to the Indigenous health crisis facing Australia report, published by Oxfam Australia and the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, Australia has been the least successful of all wealthy countries in readdressing the imbalance in the life expectancy gap between non-Indigenous and Indigenous people.
According to the Close the gap report:
'Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders die nearly 20 years younger than non-Indigenous Australians. This is in stark contrast to the USA, Canada and New Zealand where the life expectancy for indigenous people is approximately seven years less than the non-indigenous population'.
The report also found:
'Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infant mortality is three times the rate of non-Indigenous Australians and more than 50 per cent higher than for indigenous children in the USA and New Zealand.'
Executive Director of Oxfam Australia, Andrew Hewett, stated: 'It's scandalous that in a country as wealthy as Australia we cannot solve a health crisis affecting less than three per cent of the population.’
Read the Close the gap: Solutions to the Indigenous health crisis facing Australia report.
Visit the Oxfam Australia website.
Visit the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation website.
Read Oxfam Australia's 'Australia ranked bottom of wealthy nations on Indigenous health'.
Read World News Australia's 'Aust lowest indigenous effort'.
However, a separate study, from the Menzies School of Health Research released on the same day as the Close the gap report, indicates that the life expectancy of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory has risen by eight years for men and 14 for women, over the past 40 years.
Visit the Menzies School of Health Research website.
Government response
Federal Health Minister, Tony Abbot, discussed both the Oxfam Australia and Menzies School of Health Research studies on the ABC’s Lateline program on 2 April 2007:
'I think that, compared to the New Zealand Maoris and the American Indians, our Indigenous health outcomes are worse, I don't think there's a lot of doubt about that, but I also think that we are doing much better now than we were a couple of decades back, and the very encouraging news from the Northern Territory is that Indigenous life expectancies have gone up by eight years for men and 14 years for women since the late 1960s.
'So, yes, there's a lot more to be done, but it is not quite the situation of unremitting gloom which we tend to get.’
Labor’s health spokeswoman, Nicola Roxon, said that, while the study on the Indigenous mortality in the Northern Territory was positive, the overall situation was still dire.
Read the transcript of Lateline's 'Tony Jones talks to Health Minister Tony Abbott'.
Read The Australian's 'Indigenous life on the up'.
Paul Keating's 'Redfern speech' celebrated
Simultaneous to the release of both reports, a survey on ABC’s Radio National declared former Prime Minister Paul Keating's speech on Aboriginal injustice to be Australia’s most unforgettable speech.
Keating gave his 'Redfern speech' on 10 December 1992, at the launch of the International Year of the World's Indigenous People (1993). Speaking in Redfern Park, Keating called for non-Aboriginal Australians to 'open our hearts' and stated that 'If we raise the standard of health by 20 per cent one year, it will be raised more the next. If we open one door, others will follow.'
The Radio National survey had more than 5000 responses, and ranked Paul Keating’s speech as the third most unforgettable, behind Martin Luther King’s 'I have a dream' speech and Jesus' sermon on the mount.
Read Paul Keating's 'Redfern speech'.
Read The Sydney Morning Herald's 'Redfern speech still resonates'.
Pledge calling for greater funding
Oxfam Australia is asking people to sign a pledge on its website calling for Federal and state governments to invest $250–500 million more every year in primary health care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Read Oxfam Australia's 'Close the gap' pledge.
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