National Indigenous health equality summit 2008
Fact Sheet 2: Backgrounder
Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma made two major
recommendations relating to Indigenous health in chapter 2 of the Social
Justice Report 2005.
These recommendations were:
Recommendation 1 – A commitment to achieve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality
That the governments of Australia commit to achieving equality of health status and life expectation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous people within 25 years.
Recommendation 2 – Supporting commitments and processes to achieve equality of health status
a) That the governments of Australia commit to achieving equality of access to primary health care and health infrastructure within 10 years for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
b) That benchmarks and targets for achieving
equality of health status and life expectation be negotiated, with the full
participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and committed to
by all Australian governments.
Since the release
of the report, the Commissioner has been working with a growing coalition of
organisations who are determined to make a difference in Indigenous health.
These organisations include:
- Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory
- Amnesty International Australia
- Australian Catholic Bishop’s Social Justice Conference
- Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine
- Australian Council of Social Services
- Australian Council for International Development
- Indigenous Dentists’ Association of Australia
- Australian General Practice Network
- Australian Indigenous Doctors Association
- Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
- Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
- Australian Medical Association
- Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation
- Australian Nursing Federation
- Australian Red Cross
- Caritas Australia
- Clinical Nurse Consultants Association of NSW
- Congress of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Nurses
- Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health
- Diplomacy Training Program, University of New South Wales
- Fred Hollows Foundation
- Gnibi the College of Indigenous Australian Peoples, Southern Cross University
- Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
- Human Rights Law Resource Centre
- Professor Ernst Hunter, Department of Social and Preventative Medicine, University of Queensland
- Ian Thorpe’s Fountain for Youth
- Indigenous Law Centre, University of New South Wales
- Jumbunna, University of Technology Sydney
- Make Indigenous Poverty History campaign
- Menzies School of Health Research
- National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation
- National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Council
- National Association of Community Legal Centres
- National Children’s and Youth Law Centre
- National Rural Health Alliance
- Oxfam Australia
- Public Health Association of Australia
- Quaker Services Australia
- Professor Ian Ring, Centre for Health Service Development, University of Wollongong
- Reconciliation Australia
- Royal Australasian College of Physicians
- Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
- Rural Doctors Association of Australia
- Save the Children Australia
- Sax Institute
- Sisters of Mercy Aboriginal Network NSW
- Sisters of Mercy Justice Network Asia Pacific
- Professor Daniel Tarantola, Chair of Health and Human Rights, University of New South Wales Telethon Institute for Child Health Research
- UNICEF Australia
- Uniya Jesuit Social Justice Centre
- Victorian
Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation
In December 2006, 30 of these organisations signed an open letter to governments highlighting the Indigenous health crisis. See http://www.humanrights.gov.au/social_justice/health/health_OpenLetter.html
The Social Justice Commissioner believes that Australia has a unique window of opportunity at the moment to achieve Indigenous health equality. In fact, as a nation we have perhaps never been as well placed as we currently are to turn the health crisis faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples around.
For more information about the campaign history and milestones see http://www.humanrights.gov.au/social_justice/health/index.html
