Transcript Slide 1

Close the Gap?
ACTCOSS
5 November 2010
Dr Tom Calma
Co-Chairperson,
Close The Gap on Indigenous Health Equality
Steering Committee
'It is not credible to suggest that one of
the wealthiest nations of the world
cannot solve a health crisis affecting
less than 3% of its citizens’
Social Justice Report 2005
Life-expectancy
Most Indigenous deaths occur in the middle adult ages
Source: Darren Benham analysis mortality data
Death Contributors
Headline indicators
• Post secondary education — post secondary attainment
increased slightly between 2001 and 2006.
• Disability and chronic disease — the level almost twice that
for non-Indigenous people
• Household and individual income —Median incomes of
Indigenous households were 65 per cent of those of nonIndigenous households in both 2001 and 2006.
• Substantiated child abuse and neglect — the rate of
substantiated notifications for child abuse or neglect increasing
from 4 to 6 times the non-Indigenous rate.
• Family and community violence —limited data on the
prevalence but violence a continuing issue for many Indigenous
communities.
• Imprisonment and juvenile detention — the imprisonment rate
increased by 46 per cent for Indigenous women and by 27 per
cent for Indigenous men between 2000 and 2008.
– adults were 13 times; juvenile 28 times greater than non
Indigenous
Not all doom and gloom
• Indigenous school retention rates: to Year 10, Year 11 and
Year 12 have steadily increased over the last 5 to 10 years.
• Literacy and numeracy levels: have improved at years 3,
5 & 7, particularly for reading and writing.
• Completed year 12: has increased between 2001 and
2006 (from 21% to 25%).
• Unemployment rates: are more than twice as high,
however declined between 1996 and 2006 (from 13% to
9%).
• Functional housing: the proportion of the population living
in discrete Indigenous communities that were connected to
a town water supply almost doubled between 2001 and
2006 (from 17% to 30%).
• Home ownership: has increased slightly from 27% in
1996 to 29% in 2006 and with the current policies in relation
to housing and home ownership should see increases in the
years to come.
Major policies in Indigenous affairs
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First Indigenous University Graduate 1965
Equal Wages (1966)
Referendum (1967) – count Aboriginal people in the census
Mabo (1992) – overturn the Doctrine of Terra Nullius
Close the Gap (2005)
NTER & Welfare Reform (2007)
Closing the Gap (2007)
UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007)
National Apology (2008)
National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples (2010)
Referendum to recognise First Australians (2013)
The campaign for health
equality
OVERALL TARGET:
HEALTH STATUS EQUALITY
WITHIN 25 YEARS
Targets and benchmarks as
appropriate.
FOUNDATION TARGET:
EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY TO
BE HEALTHY WITHIN 10 YEARS
Sub-target 1:
Equality of access to primary health
care within 10 years.
Sub-target 2:
Equal standard of health
infrastructure within 10 years
A human rights based
approach
• All policies and programs relating to indigenous
peoples must be based on the principles of nondiscrimination and equality, which recognize the
cultural distinctiveness and diversity of indigenous
peoples.
• Indigenous peoples have the right to full and
effective participation in decisions which directly or
indirectly affect their lives.
• Such participation shall be based on the principle of
free, prior and informed consent.
A human rights based
approach (cont)
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Capacity building always needs to be
considered and resources made available to
facilitate meaningful participation by indigenous
peoples as equal partners in planning, design,
negotiation, implementation, monitoring and
evaluation of policies that affect them.
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Independent dispute resolution mechanisms
should be put in place for the parties.
Principle of Progressive Realisation
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Create a plan
– ‘ambitious yet realistic time frame’,
– set equality as a target,
– set a time frame;
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Commit sufficient resources; and
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Be accountable to the plan by setting benchmarks
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What is the Close the Gap Campaign?
- A movement that is growing
- Lead by Indigenous people
- Embraced by the Australian
population
- Bi-partisan political
agreements signed or
pledged at federal level and in
all mainland states and
- territories
Supported by over 80 non-Indigenous health
peak bodies and affiliates and human rights
advocacy groups and organisations
The truth is, a business as usual approach towards
Indigenous Australians is not working. Most old
approaches are not working. We need a new beginning
— a new beginning which contains real measures of
policy success or policy failure; a new beginning, a new
partnership, on closing the gap with sufficient flexibility
not to insist on a one-size-fits-all approach for each of
the hundreds of remote and regional Indigenous
communities across the country but instead allowing
flexible, tailored, local approaches to achieve commonlyagreed national objectives that lie at the core of our
proposed new partnership; a new beginning that draws
intelligently on the experiences of new policy settings
across the nation.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples, 13 Feb 2008[i]
Statement of Intent
• PM
• Minister of Health and
Minister of Indigenous
Affairs
• Opposition Leader
• Every major
Indigenous and non
Indigenous peak
health and human
rights body
• First and only
bipartisan agreement
20 March 2008
Statement of Intent
“……commits the Government of Australia,
Indigenous Australians, supported by nonIndigenous Australians and non-Indigenous
health organisations to work together to
achieve equality in health status and life
expectancy between Indigenous and nonIndigenous Australians by the year 2030.”
People
National Close The Gap Day – 25 March – 570 events
NRL Round, Indigenous All Stars and Reconciliation Cup
Community Involvement
RAPs
Reconciliation Australia is
dedicated to closing the
unacceptable life expectancy
gap between Indigenous and
non-Indigenous children.
One of our key strategies in
achieving that ambition is to
support and encourage
organisations to sign up to
their own tailored
Reconciliation Action Plan
(RAP).
Philanthropy
Greg Poche - Health care
philanthropy. Poche Centre for
skin care research and
treatment in Sydney
(Melanoma Institute) and
Poche Centres for Indigenous
Health in Sydney and Adelaide
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To developing a
comprehensive, long-term
plan of action, that is targeted to
need, evidence-based and
capable of addressing the
existing inequalities in health
services, in order to achieve
equality …;
• To ensuring the full
participation of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander peoples …;
and
• To supporting and
developing Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander
community controlled health
services in urban, rural and
remote areas….
Close the Gap story
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Social Justice Report 2005
March 2006 – CTG Coalition formed
April 2007 – National Launch
December 2007 – COAG commitment
May 2008 SOI signing
November 2008 – COAG $1.6 billion
25 March – National CTG Day
August each year – NRL CTG Round
Indigenous All Stars and Reconciliation Cup
Opening of Parliament – PM’s Report
All state and territory governments signing SOI
REINSTATE THE MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS
HEALTH ON 14 SEPTEMBER
$1.2 billion since 2007 to improve
the health and safety of children in the NT
• an extra 62 police, 80 night patrols in remote
communities and 22 safe houses
• over 10,600 health checks for children and more than
19,000 follow-up specialist services
• Eighteen new temporary police stations are now
operational and upgraded five permanent police stations
in remote communities
• We have also committed $1.7 billion over ten years to
address the huge backlog in remote NT housing
• 750 new houses, 230 rebuilds of existing houses and
2,500 refurbishments across the NT by 2013
Media Release Ministers Macklin and Snowdon 18 October 2010
Engaging local communities
• Engagement with local communities is varied
– most effective where existing governance
mechanisms were strong (Fitzroy Futures Forum).
• The capacity of some government offices to
effectively engage with Indigenous communities.
– recruitment of community based staff – has paid
strong dividends.
• Only South Australia uses interpreters routinely.
• Governments must consider community capacity
to engage in negotiations in an informed way.
Coordinator-General’s 2nd Six Monthly Report (December 2009-August 2010).
Governance in communities
• Coordinator-General commissioned a project on
Governance and Capacity. Findings included:
– Need for genuine decision-making power at the local level.
This implies acceptance of local responsibility for local
decisions.
– Inconsistent and moving policy platform undermines the
development of community governance – creating a
‘governance gap’.
– Holistic approach to governance addressing communitylevel governance capacity and improving the governance
of government.
• Coordinator-General believes there has been
insufficient attention to building community and
organisational governance capacity
Coordinator-General’s 2nd Six Monthly Report (December 2009-August 2010).
Need to work together in partnership
“What can I do to achieve
equality for all Australians?”
“From self respect comes dignity
and
from dignity comes hope”
Questions?
Further information on the Close the Gap Campaign can be found at:
www.humanrights.gov.au/social_justice/health/index.html