John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For several years now I have spoken in this chamber on the state of Indigenous eye health in this country. My motivation for doing so is simple—it is absolutely unacceptable that any Australian suffer from preventable or treatable vision loss in a nation as wealthy as our own.

This evening, I want to once again draw the attention of the Senate to the eye health of Indigenous Australians. I also want to acknowledge the Abbott government for continuing with parts of the Indigenous eye health funding regime put in place by the previous Labor government, and lend my support to calls for charging a national body to oversee the campaign to close the gap in eye health.

I should also mention that The Fred Hollows Foundation, the group established to continue Fred's legacy of work around the world and with Indigenous communities, has recently campaigned to 'End Trachoma Now'. This campaign has rightly attracted support from government, opposition and cross bench parliamentarians. More, though, can sign up and explicitly support the campaign to wipe out trachoma.

It should be a continuing source of national shame that our Indigenous communities in remote Australia rank alongside countries like Afghanistan and Chad in still experiencing endemic rates of trachoma. Indigenous Australians shoulder the burden of more eye disease and yet receive less treatment for eye disease than non-Indigenous Australians. Indigenous adults are still six times more likely to be blind and three times more likely to have low vision compared to non-Indigenous Australians. Indigenous Australians are twelve times more likely to be affected by cataracts, but seven times less likely to undergo cataract surgery. Two out of every five older Indigenous Australians would not be able to read tonight's Hansard for want of a pair of glasses. This cannot continue.

Vision impairment robs people of their autonomy and cripples their capacity to benefit from education, seek employment and manage their health effectively. Indigenous vision loss is a wanton waste of this country's human capital. Ninety-four per cent of vision loss in Indigenous communities is preventable or treatable, yet 35 per cent of Indigenous adults have never had an eye exam.

Trachoma, diabetes, cataracts and refractive error, just four conditions, account for almost all of the vision loss in Indigenous Australia. It is essential we work towards the elimination of trachoma and address the avoidable vision loss caused by cataracts, diabetes and refractive error. Closing the vision gap between Indigenous Australia and non-Indigenous Australia is, of course, both prudent and practical.

Between the years 2009 and 2013, the Rudd government dedicated $16 million dollars to eliminating trachoma. Senator Nash announced earlier this year that the current government will maintain funding for this program for a further four years. I believe that was a sound decision, given that trachoma rates have fallen from 14 per cent in 2009 to four per cent in 2012. If this trend continues, we will eliminate trachoma in Australia—a disease which has lingered in this first-world country for far, far too long. The Minister for Health, Peter Dutton, has cleared up some ambiguity around the funding of this program and guaranteed it will continue in the years ahead. This is the right decision from the Minister for Health, and I commend it.

In another life, also as Minister for Health, Prime Minister Tony Abbott established the National Trachoma Surveillance and Reporting Unit. Now, as Prime Minister—and in line with expert recommendations—I would commend that he moves to establish Indigenous eye health as a national priority and charge a national body to oversee the fight to close the gap in Indigenous eye health. Presently, several groups are involved in a series of national and regional programs, yet there is no single body to oversee this process. There is no single body charged with collecting and collating Indigenous eye health data; and there is no single body with the authority to create and maintain national guidelines or benchmarks for Indigenous eye health.

A body charged with national oversight for Indigenous eye health would create continuity and would enhance accountability. As the April 2014 discussion paper, The roadmap to close the gap for visionthe need for national oversight, prepared by the Melbourne University Indigenous Eye Health Unit put it, it could be achieved by utilising:

…existing committee structure, experience and expertise ... There is no need nor is there desire to set up a separate, stand-alone … group.

This is not about creating another layer of bureaucracy; it is about creating continuity and it is about enhancing accountability.

National oversight in Indigenous eye health is supported by key experts and organisations in the field. They are experts such as the tireless advocate Professor Hugh Taylor and organisations like the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists and Optometry Australia. Closing the gap in Indigenous eye health is, as I have said, prudent and practical. It must be a priority. Where necessary, we should focus on preventing vision loss; wherever possible, we should eradicate the conditions that lead to vision loss.

Finally, I would urge the government, the opposition and all those on the crossbench and in this parliament with an interest in eye health to make Indigenous eye care a national priority and to charge a national body with tackling this critical issue of genuine national significance.