Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Assistant Minister for Health (Senator Nash) to a question without notice asked by Senator Siewert today relating to the Aboriginal Medical Service of Western Sydney.

Western Sydney has the highest concentration of Aboriginal people in Australia, and the Aboriginal medical service at Mount Druitt is right at the centre of that and in fact supports 11,000 patients. Many of the patients have never sought mainstream medical care and do not trust those services, which is similar across the country. Many of the current clients do not have the capacity to communicate their difficulties with people they automatically distrust—again, why it is so important that we have Aboriginal medical services. Staff of the current service have expressed their concerns that clients will opt to stop seeking medical treatment rather than going to a mainstream service, hence their deep concern about the closure of the service today.

These services are important because they are community led and they make sure that they support the wraparound health of their patients—and patients do spend more than five minutes with a doctor. That is why they also run so many other services out of Aboriginal medical services. They reach into their communities, they use creative, community-led initiatives that ensure people stay connected to health care, and they address the whole needs of the person. Among the services that AMSs provide there is community ownership, as the community has developed and shaped the service. The community have elected boards. Board members are consumers of the service, and many of them are elected to represent the community at a local, regional, state and national level. All associated responsibilities are met unpaid. They are a meeting place, a teaching place and a learning place. That is how people described AMSs—a place to go to when you feel crook; need food or to make an urgent phone call; or need emotional support, a safe place to cry or a place to heal. They are a supportive place to track and contact family members or get assistance when family and friends pass away. They provide culturally respectful support and assistance whenever possible, including assistance with funeral preparations and the transport of loved ones back to country for burial. And they are a built-in health care complaints service with prompt responses. As you can see, I am not exaggerating when I articulate the importance of Aboriginal medical services to their community.

Despite the important service that AMSs provide and the importance of community controlled health, Aboriginal health seems to be constantly under pressure. We saw from the 2014 budget that there was a significant amount of money—$260 million—cut out of Aboriginal health programs. The future of AMSs in terms of the certainty of their funding was for quite a long time under a great deal of pressure and under a cloud. What I need to point out here is that Aboriginal medical services do not just get money directly for the delivery of actual medical services. They also deliver a number of other services that come from various buckets—for example, the Indigenous Advancement Strategy and the Department of Social Services. And they deliver services through a complex set of funding programs that are actually essential when you are dealing with the health of Aboriginal people and dealing with some of the circumstances that I have just articulated here. That is why the chaos that has surrounded the IAS program and the chaos that has surrounded the Department of Social Services has not only undermined the ability of a broad number of Aboriginal services to provide those services—and some have in fact lost funding—it has also impacted on Aboriginal medical services, because they need all those funding sources to be able to provide a comprehensive medical health support service for the members of their community.

I look forward to hearing the minister's announcement on the future of Aboriginal Medical Service Western Sydney in the very near future. It is absolutely essential that the government outlines what the future is for those services and to ensure that those services are Aboriginal owned, controlled and delivered for those 11,000 Aboriginal people in Western Sydney.

Question agreed to.