Page 607 - Week 02 - Thursday, 20 March 2014
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Today Australians from all walks of life recognise 2014 National Close the Gap Day. The close the gap campaign began in 2006 when peak Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous health bodies, non-government organisations and human rights organisations came together to improve health and life expectation outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The ACT has been a proud signatory to the close the gap statement of intent for a number of years. Close the gap is often used in the context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues. However, it specifically refers to the gap in the health and life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It is also more generally used to refer to the inequalities that exist between first Australians and non-Indigenous Australians. In his 2008 apology, the then Prime Minister stated:
It is indeed an obscenity that in this prosperous nation, Indigenous males die on average at the age of 59—18 years earlier than non-Indigenous males.
And Indigenous females only live to 65 on average—compared to 82 for non-Indigenous females … while the mortality rate of Indigenous Australian babies is declining, it remains at more than 12 for every 1000 live births—a rate nearly three times that of non-indigenous infants.
The ACT government has committed, through the Council of Australian Governments, to closing the life expectancy gap within a generation; halving the gap in mortality rates for Indigenous children under five within a decade; ensuring all Indigenous four-year-olds in remote communities have access to early childhood education within five years; halving the gap for Indigenous students in reading, writing and numeracy within a decade; halving the gap for Indigenous people aged 12 to 24 in year 12 attainment or equivalent attainment rates; and halving the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a decade.
I will be seeking the support of our federal colleagues to commit to invest in the renewal of the national partnership agreement on closing the gap in Indigenous health outcomes which expires on 30 June 2014. I am welcoming of the Prime Minister’s recent comments regarding the coalition’s commitment to closing the gap and the broad support that all political parties offer to this important work.
We continue to work with our commonwealth and state colleagues by implementing the ACT’s commitments to the national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health plan. The Hon Tony Abbott, the Prime Minister of Australia, said last year, ‘‘Until the first Australians can fully participate in the life of our country we are diminished as a nation and as a people.’’ I am pleased to say that the close the gap campaign is changing this. We are working with the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body to deliver better outcomes to the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.
These include the development of a model for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander aged care facility that will to take into consideration the priority needs of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elderly, including access to culturally appropriate medical facilities as well as access to transport and family; design work
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