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

I rise to take note of the report of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner for 2004-05. This report again highlights the very significant health issues facing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia. I need once again to highlight the statistics that are affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

I have said many times in this place, as have other people, that the difference in life expectancy between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and non-Aboriginal people is 17 years. If you then look at infant and child health, the infant mortality rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are three times those of non-Indigenous infants.

Two of the three leading causes of death are chronic diseases of the circulatory system and cancer. Diseases include heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Just the day before yesterday there was a new study released showing that Aboriginal women are 66 per cent more likely to die of cancer than non-Aboriginal Australians. For men I think it was 58 per cent. In 2003, notification rates amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians for the majority of communicable diseases were higher than amongst other Australians, with rates up to 93 times the rates of other Australians.

The West Australian Aboriginal child health survey reported that 18 per cent of Aboriginal children had a recurring ear infection, 12 per cent had a recurring chest infection, nine per cent had a recurring skin infection and six per cent had a recurring gastrointestinal infection. The rate of oral health and mental health problems is much higher in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and the same goes for disabilities. Australia is one of the healthiest countries in the world, yet our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have some of the worst health outcomes in the world—substantially worse than indigenous people, for example, in New Zealand, Canada and the US. In the US there is a five- to eight-year difference in life expectancy as opposed to the 17-year difference here. I am not saying that that is appropriate at all, but at least it is better than Australia’s rate.

There is apparently nothing unique in the disease pattern or history of Aboriginal people to justify or to explain the differences between non-Aboriginal people and Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people are three times more likely than the general population to be sick, so they need more money. We need to address that in Australia by allocating significantly more resources. In Canada the last two budgets have injected $20 billion into indigenous health.

If you look at the fact that half the Aboriginal people over 15 already have established chronic diseases, it is essential that we start addressing this issue early in people’s lives and also right now. Figures from the MBS and PBS systems show that every $1 spent on non-Aboriginal people equates to 40c spent on Aboriginal people. The big issue in our health care system is the lack of access to primary health care. Aboriginal people have much reduced access to primary health care and the programs that do exist—I acknowledge there are some programs—lack a systemic approach and lack funding, as I have just articulated. It is estimated that, in 2004, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples enjoyed 40 per cent of the per capita access of the non-Indigenous population to primary health care provided by general practitioners.

There is a huge health challenge, and Tom Calma addresses this huge challenge in the excellent reports that he has consistently been producing. He has very recently articulated a 20-year plan to address Aboriginal health, because if we do not start addressing it now we will never address the 17-year gap in life expectancy rates. That is the point he repeatedly makes. We need to address this issue now or there will be a number of senators in this place continuing to say that Aboriginal health issues in this country are outrageous and are the same as in the so-called Third World nations, which I think, in a supposedly First World nation, should be unacceptable. I believe everybody in this place should find that unacceptable. (Time expired)

Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would also like to speak to the report of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. If people are going to read only one of the 72 documents listed in the Notice Paper today, I would suggest that this would be a good one for them to pick. The report from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner is very comprehensive and thorough. What is important about it are not just the issues it raises but that it does so in a very fact based way and that it details what needs to be done and what progress has occurred. So it is not just a document bemoaning the state of things with regard to what is faced by Indigenous Australians; it is very specific and it particularly documents what needs to happen from here, including, I might say, actions to be taken by the commissioner and the commission itself.

One particular aspect of the report that I would like to draw attention to, because I think it is indicative of a wider problem at the moment, is the section that refers to Indigenous representation and Indigenous voices in public debate. The approach the government is currently taking with regard to a range of issues affecting Indigenous people is one that we all have varying views on and I think it would depend a bit on which particular issue you are focused on. But the one area of the government’s approach which I am definitely critical about is their lack of action with regard to Indigenous representation and, frankly, their lack of action in responding to reports specifically like this one.

This report contains a recommendation identifying as a matter of urgency the need for the development of much clearer and more effective mechanisms to provide representation for Indigenous people on matters that directly affect them. It is a principle that has growing recognition—the need for prior and informed consent with regard to issues that are affecting people. We saw the government fail this quite drastically with regard to the changes with the Northern Territory land rights legislation. Regardless of your views about the plusses or minuses of those changes, there is no doubt that the process itself did not adequately involve the very people that were most affected—that is, the Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory, particularly the traditional owners. Even the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs himself, Mr Brough, eventually—after the fact, unfortunately—acknowledged that the process was less than ideal. It is one thing for us in this place to complain about the process being less than ideal and not adequate for our needs, but it is a much greater failing when it does not meet the needs and requirements of the people directly affected by legislative changes.

Certainly in many of the consultations I have with Indigenous people, particularly in my own state of Queensland, concern about the lack of representation—the lack of a seat at the table, for want of a better phrase—comes up very regularly. There is no doubt that Indigenous Australians are in a very powerless position when it comes to us having a say in matters that affect them, including legislative changes, the administration of programs and issues to do with funding.

The recommendation regarding Indigenous representation urged a response from the government by the end of June. As far as I know, that has not happened—not even, ‘No, we don’t think this needs to happen’. I think it is totally unsatisfactory that there is no response at all. Very important proposals are put forward in this report, and the least that can be done by the government is to take them seriously and treat them with some respect.

I would like to take the opportunity to briefly note that Mr Calma and others participated in a forum today highlighting the development and pending adoption globally of the United Nations convention on the rights of indigenous peoples. To date, the Australian government has not been supportive of that convention, which I think is a shame, but, regardless of whether the government is supportive, the fact is that this convention will be adopted. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.