Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Assistant Minister for Health (Senator Nash) to a question without notice asked by Senator Canavan today relating to Indigenous eye health.

In a couple of minutes I will be moving a motion about Indigenous eye health. I am pleased to see that the government is moving on Indigenous eye health. As yet I cannot find a formal announcement online of the actual detail of this expenditure, so I will be awaiting that with some anticipation.

In terms of the eye health coordinators, that is certainly a very good step in the right direction, because this is an issue that we need to have a significant level of investment in. When you look at the fact that most of the blindness and vision impairment that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples face and have are preventable, we can see the size of the problem that we are actually trying to deal with concerning Indigenous eye health.

This comes on the back of the report The roadmap to close the gap for vision from Vision 2020 and from, as Senator Nash articulated, Professor Hugh Taylor, who was done so much work on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander eye health. Their final report, which was released just a couple weeks ago, particularly included an economic analysis of the value of Indigenous sight which showed just how not only is this a really important issue in terms of actually dealing with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples eyesight but also it has an economic benefit.

While the roadmap talked about the level of additional investment that was needed—in the vicinity of an additional $68.25 million to be provided over five years for Indigenous eye health—I note that, from the details that Minister Nash articulated in the chamber in answer to the question, there was $4.5 million per year for the next couple of years for the eye health coordinators and $1.6 over two years for addressing trachoma because, as we know, we still have a significant issue with trachoma in this country. That is, as I said, a very good step in the right direction. But it is very obvious that we still need to be investing more if we are going to address the issues around preventable vision impairment and blindness in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The percentage of people affected by the preventable loss is much higher in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities than in the broader Australian population.

But it is quite obvious from the Roadmap and the final report, The value of Indigenous sight, the economic analysis, that we actually do still need a much higher level of investment. So while I do congratulate the government and the minister, who I know is very genuine on Aboriginal health issues, we do need some further investment, and I will continue to pursue that. But it is very important that we acknowledge the work, and getting those eye health coordinators in place will be a very good step in the right direction. But there are many other areas that are articulated both in the Roadmap and in The value of Indigenous sight, the economic analysis, that needs a higher level of investment. We will continue to pursue that higher level of investment.

Question agreed to.