Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I speak tonight on the subject of Indigenous eye health. Compared with non-Indigenous Australians, Indigenous adults have six times the rate of blindness and three times as much low vision. Vision loss causes 11 per cent of the Indigenous health gap and poor vision hinders education, employment, independence and the management of simple daily activities like self-care of chronic diseases including diabetes. Ninety-four per cent of this vision loss is preventable or treatable. Most vision loss can be corrected literally overnight with cataract surgery or the provision of spectacles. However, over one-third of Indigenous Australian adults have never had an eye examination.

Professor Hugh Taylor of Melbourne University has prepared an evidence based Roadmap to Close the Gap for Vision. It has been developed with extensive stakeholder input and is widely supported by the Aboriginal health sector, government, and non-government eye care sectors. The roadmap sets out how the gap in vision can be closed within four years with national leadership. Close the Gap for Vision is a discrete and highly achievable goal with high visibility. It builds on the leadership in trachoma shown by the Prime Minister when he was health minister in the Howard government. We need national leadership to oversee and progress this work. Most of the resources needed to achieve this goal are ready available. The time has come for Australia to take concerted action to Close the Gap for Vision.

Indigenous Australian have a greater burden of eye disease but receive less eye care than non-Indigenous Australians. Indigenous people suffer 12 times more cataract blindness but cataract surgery rates are seven times lower. The waiting times for cataract surgery are considerably longer—140 days on average compared with 90 days. Only 37 per cent of Indigenous adults with diabetes who require laser therapy for diabetic eye disease have received treatment and 40 per cent of adults cannot see normal print for want of a pair of reading glasses.

In 2005 Australia was the only developed country to still have endemic trachoma, an entirely preventable infectious eye disease and the cause of nine per cent of preventable blindness in Indigenous Australians. It is going to be eradicated from countries like Iran before it is eradicated in Australia. The then health minister, Tony Abbott, established the National Trachoma Surveillance and Reporting Unit. The reporting unit collected national data and established the real picture of trachoma that led to the national commitment to eliminate trachoma. Through screening, treatment and health promotion, Australia has made considerable progress towards eliminating this disease—between 2009 and 2012, the national prevalence of trachoma decreased from 14 per cent to four per cent. Although more work needs to be done to completely eliminate trachoma and so meet Australia's commitment to the World Health Organisation, real progress has been made

The funding required to Close the Gap for Vision and improve Indigenous eye health is modest, being less than $20 million per year, with most of these funds already committed under current programs for chronic disease and coordinated care. Closing the gap for eye health and improving Indigenous access and utilisation of eye health systems are highly achievable goals for this year and will provide quick wins in Indigenous health. The time to act is now. We know what the problem is and we know how to fix it—what is required is national leadership to highlight the issue, monitor what is being done and drive improvements in access to eye care. A strong national commitment and the establishment of national oversight to guide and monitor these activities are required, and these are the necessary next steps.

House adjourned at 21:29