Close the Gap
Join Australia's largest campaign to improve Indigenous health
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can expect to live substantially shorter lives than other Australians – up to 20 years less in some cases.
Babies born to Aboriginal mothers die at twice the rate of other Australian babies. And they experience higher rates of preventable illness such as heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes.
It’s a health crisis you’d associate with an impoverished nation, but it’s happening right here in our own backyard.
Together we are changing this picture.
What we’re campaigning for
We're part of the Close the Gap coalition calling on governments to take action to achieve Indigenous health equality within 25 years by:
- Increasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders' access to health services
- Addressing critical social issues such as poor housing, nutrition, employment and education
- Building Indigenous control and participation in the delivery of health and other services
- Getting governments at state and national level to work in partnership with Indigenous communities and Indigenous health organisations and expert to develop and monitor a plan to tackle the Indigenous health crisis
Achieving health equality
Statistics of shortened life expectancy are our mothers and fathers, uncles and aunties who live diminished lives. We die silently under these statistics."
Professor Mick Dodson, 2009 Australian of the Year and Aboriginal activist and lawyer
The Close the Gap campaign has attracted immense public support:
- More than 135,000 Australians have signed the Close the Gap pledge
- Thousands of Australians have written to the federal government demanding action
- Tens of thousands of Australians have taken part in National Close the Gap Day events held around Australia
Photo: Lara McKinley/OxfamAUS
This show of public support has contributed to a shift in political will to tackle the health crisis:
- In February 2008 came the long-awaited national apology to the Stolen Generations, a moment in time that re-energised Australians to right the wrongs of our past
- ln March 2008, the Close the Gap coalition drafted a plan to address the Indigenous health crisis: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd signed it, transforming this from a popular campaign to a force shaping government policy
- In November 2008, the Australian Government announced a $1.6 billion commitment to improve Indigenous health – the biggest ever injection of new funding for Indigenous health
Our challenge is to translate this public support, political will and historic mood into sustained improvements in Indigenous health to close the gap within a generation.