Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on this matter of urgency. Those in this place will remember that, prior to the APEC summit in Sydney, the Anderson-Wild report titled Little children are sacred was widely reported on in the national media. Of course, we all now know that that was the report of an inquiry instigated by the Northern Territory government into the situation of children in Indigenous communities. I think it is fair to say that, since APEC, Indigenous issues have fallen off the national media’s radar. However, Indigenous issues are, as always, of critical importance not only to me but to the Labor Party. In this job, not a year goes by in which we do not see some sort of report into the gap between Indigenous health outcomes and life expectancy and those of non-Indigenous people. We get it from the Australian Medical Association when they hand down their report card. We get it from the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, or NACCHO. In the Northern Territory we have some of the most outstanding Aboriginal community controlled organisations that you will come across in this country. And now, of course, we have the report from Oxfam.

The situation of our Indigenous people continues to be extremely dire. NACCHO and Oxfam Australia have launched a report called Close the gap. It is a policy briefing paper. It states that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders continue to die nearly 20 years younger than non-Indigenous Australians. From a personal point of view, in the last couple of months I have attended a number of funerals for Indigenous people who have died between the ages of 37 and 53 from diseases which would normally strike down non-Indigenous people when they are at least 20 years older than those Indigenous people. So the facts are there. The real-life experiences are there for us to witness and participate in.

While Indigenous health issues have been problematic for many nations across the globe other than Australia, we seem to have the greatest difficulty in combating these problems. Close the gap states that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infant mortality is three times the rate of non-Indigenous Australians and more than 50 per cent higher than for indigenous children in the USA and New Zealand.

This chamber is no stranger to such horrifying statistics. I and many other senators have raised many similar statistics in other speeches in this chamber time after time and year after year. My colleague Minister Scullion, from the Northern Territory, reflecting on poor Indigenous life expectancy figures, said in this chamber more than five years ago that ‘average life expectancy for Indigenous men is less than my’—that is, Senator Scullion’s—‘current age’. So what have Minister Scullion and this government done with an extra five years of their life? Perhaps that is a question that only that minister can answer. But all I have seen is a fundamental failure to show leadership on addressing Aboriginal life expectancy and a complete inability to work collaboratively with the Northern Territory government to achieve any of the necessary outcomes.

The Australian Labor Party, on the other hand, in the lead-up to the election have recently released a new directions policy paper called An equal start in life for Indigenous children, in which we, as the alternative government, have outlined our policy commitment to helping Indigenous children as a way to make the greatest difference over the long term for Indigenous communities. The policy paper quite clearly articulates our position on this issue. We believe that the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians remains one of the most stark indicators of inequality in Australian society.

The Howard government has now had 11 very long years to try and minimise this gap. Labor has a plan to focus on the critical years between birth and eight years of age, particularly in terms of support for child and maternal services, early development and parenting as well as literacy and numeracy in the early years. Our plan represents a total investment of $261.4 million over four years, comprising $186.4 million in Commonwealth expenditure supported by $75 million from the states and territories.

Speaking of the states and territories, particularly over the last few months we have seen that the Howard government is more interested in blaming and riding roughshod over the Northern Territory government than working collaboratively. Federal Labor recognises the important role that the Martin Labor government in the Northern Territory is playing in addressing Indigenous disadvantage in the Northern Territory. I think it is about time that somebody in this House recognised the significant resource commitments the Northern Territory government has allocated for addressing Indigenous advantage and publicly recognised the work that public servants—nurses, health workers and those employed by the Northern Territory Department of Health and Community Services—have undertaken in their working life in turning these statistics around.

As I travelled around Indigenous communities in the previous couple of weeks, in relation to the federal government’s Northern Territory intervention, Northern Territory public servants said to me that they feel their work over the last couple of years and decades has been worthless and that there has been no recognition of the substantial role they have played in trying to reduce this gap, particularly in health services. The Northern Territory government has committed $286 million over five years to implement a closing the gap strategy. This funding package means that there will be 223 real positions created to help close the gap. This is a generational plan of action and it should be applauded. It is to the great disgrace of the opposition in the Northern Territory that they prefer to take cheap political shots at the Northern Territory government rather than working with them collaboratively on this.

The Howard government has demonstrated that it prefers to sit on its hands instead of taking real action in closing the gap. We have a federal government that prefers to play politics instead of showing real leadership, working collaboratively with state and territory governments and putting the money on the table that will actually assist in closing the gap that we are debating today.

The Australian Labor Party have, as I have discussed, demonstrated our commitment to closing the gap. We agree with NACCHO and Oxfam that poor Indigenous health is affected by:

... social and economic factors: diseases triggered by poverty; overcrowded housing; poor sanitation; lack of access to education; poor access to medical care for accurate diagnosis and treatment; and poor nutrition.

These factors are all preventable living conditions and if addressed could have real health implications for Indigenous people.

I cannot let the opportunity go by in my remaining few minutes without mentioning trachoma. I know that Senator Lyn Allison mentioned it. Last week, we were both at a dinner for the parliamentary friends group for eye health and vision care. Vision 2020 Australia, in conjunction with a number of other health experts in the area of eye health, spoke at this dinner last week. I think it might have been the first time that Senator Allison had actually been alerted to the dire situation we have in this country in relation to trachoma. I have been pursuing this issue now for many years. I know that people in OATSIH, in particular one senior public servant, will know that this has been a passion of mine for the best part of six or seven years now.

Trachoma is a disease of poverty. It was eliminated from white Australia 100 years ago, and it is a disease that we know how to handle. It exists in Aboriginal communities. The fact that it does exist is a national shame. We are the only developed country in the world that has trachoma and without some concerted effort we may end up being the last country in the world with it. Countries such as Morocco and Iran have already eliminated blinding trachoma. This year in Niger, one of the most backward of all African countries, 6½ million people will receive treatment for this disease. Some Aboriginal communities have rates of trachoma that are among the highest recorded anywhere in the world.

The Howard government just pays lip-service to interventions on trachoma and has not made any significant commitment or change. Nine hundred thousand dollars to develop a policy, to train health workers and to set up a national database may well be a good start, but it needs to fund the medicine that goes into the eyes of these people. (Time expired)