Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs, last week I had the privilege to attend the official launch of the University of Queensland's Poche Centre for Indigenous Health. This was an important occasion because Mr Greg Poche AO and Mrs Kay van Norton Poche have donated $10 million to make the UQ centre possible. The centre is an additional effort to the existing Poche centres, including those at the University of Sydney, Flinders University, the University of Western Australia and the University of Melbourne.

Mr Poche has made an important contribution to Indigenous health. He has stressedthe 11-year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians and has said this is unacceptable. I think everyone in this place would agree.

The establishment of UQ Poche C entre is a vital contribution to Indigenous health. I was pleased to see the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health CEO, Adrian Carson, Jody Currie and a number of important players in Indigenous health in South-East Queensland present. At the launch, Professor Cindy Shannon, UQ Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Indigenous Education, stressed the centre is the right fit for the region given that South-East Queensland has the largest Indigenous population—currently 65,000—in the country. By 2030, it will have 1½ times as many Indigenous people as the whole of the Northern Territory at 139,000.

Improving Indigenous health is one of the country's biggest challenges. I congratulate University of Queensland, Professor Cindy Shannon , Mr Greg Poche and Kay van Norton Poche for making this transformational contribution to Australia's Indigenous health. (Time expired)