Kay Patterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do not think anybody in the Senate would deny that there is more to do to improve Indigenous health and to reduce the difference in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, but closing the gap will not be achieved by primary health intervention alone. There are a raft of other policies which impact on the health of our first Australians.

Let me remind people about the appalling record that we inherited from the Labor government in 1996, when only 53 per cent of all our children were vaccinated—a level of vaccination that was down around those of Third World countries. That was an appalling situation among not just white Australians but Indigenous Australians. Although I have not had time to find the figure, if I were a betting woman I would bet that the level of vaccination among Indigenous Australians was lower. Through an innovative social policy—not a health policy but a social policy—Dr Michael Wooldridge brought about an increase in vaccinations to a level of over 90 per cent. There is very little incidence of measles infection in Australia, but children were dying of measles before that. The incidence of measles infection has decreased in both the Indigenous population and the general population. The successful control of measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases such as diphtheria, polio, rubella and tetanus underlines the success of universal vaccination programs and their importance to Indigenous health. In addition, before we were able to vaccinate all children against pneumococcal disease, we had Indigenous young people being vaccinated against pneumococcal disease because they were most at risk.

Measure after measure indicates an improvement in Indigenous health since the change of federal government in 1996. Senator Moore was talking about the workforce. In the four years from 2000 to 2004, which are the most recent figures we have, full-time equivalent doctors employed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healthcare services rose by 50 per cent. There was a 53 per cent increase in full-time equivalent nurses in that four-year period. The number of Indigenous healthcare workers increased by 19 per cent. I predict that we will see similar increases in the four years from 2004 to 2008.

Another measure that Dr Wooldridge brought in was the Rural Clinical Schools Program, which funded the university schools of rural health. It takes a long time for those to have an effect, and that will be one of his lasting legacies. One of the lasting legacies of the Howard government will be that young Indigenous people are now being trained in Broome or Wagga or Traralgon and they are spending more time in their own communities and more time practising their skills in remote communities. That would never have happened without the innovation of the Rural Clinical Schools Program and the university schools of rural health.

Between 1999 and 2005, the proportion of ATSI primary healthcare services providing specific programs increased. I will give you some figures. Antenatal maternal programs went from 58 per cent to 70 per cent of services, women’s health programs went from 73 per cent to 87 per cent of services, men’s health programs went from 55 per cent to 74 per cent of services, and eye screening went from 57 per cent to 70 per cent of services. Specifically targeted maternal and child health programs have produced declines in preterm births from 16.7 per cent to 8.7 per cent, which is now comparable with the general population, and a decrease in infant mortality.

Senator Moore mentioned the Townsville Mums and Bubs program. I went up to visit that program when I was Minister for Health and Ageing, and they were running it on a shoestring out of the garage, part of what they jokingly called the Taj Mahal—the Townsville Aboriginal and Islander Health Services. They said to me, ‘Can you fund this, Minister?’ It was really the responsibility of the Queensland government—it was an infant welfare program—but it is now funded through the Commonwealth. We managed to increase the funding to the Townsville Indigenous health service for that program to go ahead. When you go in there you see babies who are absolutely thriving. Mums feel confident about their parenting and children are thriving. It is a perfect example but really something that the state should have done something about. Aboriginal people have had increased access to the PBS and the MBS, and specific health checks have been introduced for children and adults.

The recent Northern Territory emergency response will have a significant impact on the health of Indigenous people, in particular children. It will also have an impact on health through the fact that there will be a greater police presence. One of the things that nurses say—and I think that Senator Adams will probably speak about this—is that they are subjected to terrible violence when they go out to remote Indigenous communities. That discourages and dissuades nurses from being there, which would then have a negative impact on health. So we need to have the states, including Western Australia, coming up to the plate. Senator Moore said that we have focused only on the Northern Territory because that is where we have the power to intervene. The Northern Territory should be looking at more police to reduce that threat to nurses.

As I said, primary health intervention is not the only way to impact on Indigenous health. There are other policies which have a positive impact on health. Look at the ‘no school, no pool’ program in Indigenous communities. School attendance goes up and the incidence of ear infections and scabies goes down. Senator Allison did not have time to mention that scabies has an enormous impact on the health of adults. As children grow up and become adults, they may have kidney disease as a result of scabies, and pools have an effect on that.

What happened in Wadeye? We had a ‘no school, no pool’ program, but the kids turned up to school and there were not enough seats and not enough teachers for them. If that had happened in South Auburn, Dandenong, Lilyfield or somewhere else in Sydney or Melbourne, there would have been an outcry. But the Northern Territory government get away with it because they do not have enough places or teachers to look after those children when they turn up. Another example of an indirect effect of a policy which is not a primary healthcare policy—