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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders die 17 years younger than non-Indigenous Australians. Close the Gap: Demand Indigenous health equality.
Photo: Wayne Quilliam/OxfamAUS
The issue
A national scandal
It's hard to believe but impossible to deny that Indigenous Australians live nearly 20 years less than other Australians. In 21st century Australia this is plainly unacceptable.
While most women in Australia can expect to live to an average age of 82 years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women can expect to live to only 64.8 years. The situation is even worse for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men whose life expectancy is only 59.4 years.
We should not accept that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders end up in hospitals at twice the rate of other Australians. Nor is it fair that while most Australians can look forward to long healthy lives with access to some of the best healthcare facilities in the world, Indigenous Australians can expect to die at much higher rates of heart disease, cancer, and kidney failure, to name a few diseases.
It's sad but true that Indigenous Australians have not shared in the health gains enjoyed by other Australians over the last twenty years. Yet it is inconceivable that a country as wealthy as Australia cannot solve a health crisis affecting less then three per cent of its population.
Achieving Indigenous health equality
The naysayers argue that there are no votes in Aboriginal issues; that Aboriginal Australians are unable to help themselves; or that governments have tried to fix the problem and that there are no new answers.
The naysayers are wrong. Australia-wide, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are taking action to improve the health of their people and some of their success stories are featured here.
There are always answers. It is a question of government leadership at both federal and state level and across all parties. It is time Australia flexed its muscles and mustered the political will to redress Australia's health inequalities between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and other Australians.
Closing the gap
The Close the Gap campaign is calling on Australian governments to take action to achieve health equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders within 25 years through
- Increasing Indigenous Australians' access to health services
- Addressing critical social issues such as poor housing, nutrition and education
- Building Indigenous control and participation in the delivery of health and other services