National Indigenous health equality summit 2008
Fact Sheet 3: Progress so far
A Steering Committee for the campaign to get Australian government’s to commit to achieving equality of health status and life expectation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander was formed in March 2006.
Chaired by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma, the Steering Committee is led by the peak Indigenous health bodies (the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation -NACCHO, the Australian Indigenous Doctor’s Association and the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses). Other prominent members include Oxfam Australia, the Fred Hollows Foundation and Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR), as well as mainstream health peak bodies such as the National Heart Foundation Australia, the Australian General Practice Network and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.
Supported by campaign members, the Steering Committee works together to persuade Australian governments to adopt the recommendations for Indigenous health equality set out in the Commissioner’s Social Justice Report 2005:
- for Indigenous health equality to be achieved within 25 years (supported by a range of sub targets);
- and for
equality of opportunity in relation to primary health care and health
infrastructure to be achieved within 10-years for Indigenous peoples in
Australia.
Official launch of the close
the gap campaign
The public face of the Indigenous Health Equality campaign is the Close the Gap campaign (which was officially launched at Telstra Stadium by Catherine Freeman, Ian Thorpe, Henry Councillor- Chair Of NACCHO, and the Commissioner. A full-page open letter was published in The Australian calling for Australian governments to support the campaign. See http://www.humanrights.gov.au/about/media/media_releases/2007/22_07.html
This and other activities had real impact. The Australian Labor Party had adopted much of the language and the approach of the campaign in its Indigenous affairs policy by the time of the 2007 federal election.
A significant milestone was achieved for the campaign on 20 December 2007 when the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to a partnership between all levels of government to work with Indigenous communities to achieve the target of ‘closing the gap’ on Indigenous disadvantage, and agreeing to close the 17-year gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a generation.
COAG also committed to halve the mortality gap for Indigenous children under five within a decade at the December 2007 meeting.
Another significant milestone was the federal government’s commitment to address the poor state of Indigenous housing by way of a bipartisan ‘war cabinet’ on Indigenous issues, which was announced in mid-February when the Prime Minister delivered the National Apology to the Stolen Generations.
However, COAG and the government’s use of ‘Close the Gap’ at the moment does not extend to a commitment to 10-year primary health care and health infrastructure equality of opportunity targets.The summit provides an opportunity for the broad COAG and government commitments to be ‘fleshed out’ in partnership with Indigenous health peak bodies, mainstream health peak bodies and non-government organisations with an interest and expertise in Indigenous health.
