Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

There has been no greater failure in Australian public life than the failure of governments, both state and federal, Labor and Liberal, to ensure that our First Australians enjoy the same quality of life as all other Australians. Australia now has a standard of living and a quality of life that is the envy of the world. Australian men and women can now both expect to live beyond 80, one of only two countries where this occurs—except if you are an Indigenous Australian. We have among the world's best health outcomes. Our cancer survival rates, for example, are world leading, and our infant mortality is at record lows—again, except if you are an Indigenous Australian. If you do become ill, you can count on the support of a world-class, free universal health-insurance system—our healthcare system, Medicare—to look after you every step of the way—except if you are an Indigenous Australian and cannot access it.

It is true that we are making progress. There have been some improvements. Life expectancy for Indigenous Australians has increased by 1.6 years and 0.6 years for men and women respectively over the past five years. But that still leaves life expectancy of Indigenous Australians at around 10 years less than for the rest of the population.

It still leaves us as two nations, where most of us can expect to enjoy extremely long and mostly healthy lives, while in other parts of our nation it is another country, with a lifespan usually found in third-world countries on another continent. That is a terrible loss of lives. Lives are being ended far too soon and parents are not living long enough to see their grandchildren, due, more often than not, to health outcomes we do not tolerate in the wider community. There are issues like smoking, where there is a much higher prevalence among Aboriginal Australians, and diabetes and the problems caused through obesity. Twice as many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infants as non-Indigenous infants are born of low birth weight, denying too many babies even a decent start of a healthy life. Just today, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's report on admitted patient care finds Aboriginal people are hospitalised at double the rate of the rest of the population.

Tomorrow marks the anniversary of Kevin Rudd's 2008 signing of the Close the gap: Indigenous health equality summit: Statement of intent. It is why this debate has been brought on in this chamber. It is no accident, from this side of the House, that it is the Leader of the Opposition, two shadow cabinet ministers and two other members of the ministry who are here debating this notion. We take this very seriously.

The statement that was signed in 2008 declared that the government of Australia and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia would:

…work together to achieve equality in health status and life expectancy between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians by the year 2030.

Sadly, the release of the Close the gap: progress and priorities report 2015 revealed how far we still have to travel to meet this goal. As I declared at the outset, no one government or party is to blame for all of this. But what these latest figures show is that now is not the time to be removing resources from this area; it is the time to be ramping them up, to making sure there is certainty for Indigenous health organisations across the country so they can continue this good work. This is why, of course, on this side of the House, we were so distressed by last year's budget, which saw half a billion dollars in cuts to Closing the Gap programs, including $165 million taken from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health programs alone.

These cuts are being felt in communities at the coalface of the fight to close the gap. Amity Community Services in Darwin, for example, was forced to cut its program combating substance abuse among vulnerable young people. There was $2.3 million axed from youth sport, health and education services at the MacDonnell Regional Council. Organisations such as the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives do not know what is happening to their funding—which comes through the Health Department—beyond June 2015.

If we are to close the gap and improve health outcomes in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations we cannot take funding away from these programs. There should be an outcry, on all sides of the parliament, that there are decisions to do so. Concern about what these cuts do needs to be expressed—whether it is publicly or internally on that side of parliament. We know they do have an impact on the services and the capacity of Indigenous organisations and Aboriginal medical services to actually deliver these important services. On this side of the House, we are committed to closing the gap.

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