ABORIGINAL HEALTH

7 July 1996

The Governor General, Sir William Deane, said tonight that the continuing effects of the past oppression and dispossession of the Aboriginal people were in the forefront of the problems to be addressed by Australians. He said these effects extended over whole social spectrum, including education, employment, and health.

Sir William was speaking at the opening of this year's "Future Perspectives Forum" for 100 young adult Australians, aged between 22 and 28, conducted by the Queen's Trust. The week-long forum, at Trinity College in the University of Melbourne, will discuss a range of social and economic issues facing Australia. The Governor General said that on the first day of NAIDOC week - a week dedicated by the Aboriginal communities to the celebration of a culture and their survival - he wanted to raise the issue of Aboriginal health.

Sir William continued: "The publication "Australia's Health 1996" which was launched by the Minister for Health and Family Services, Dr Wooldridge, within the last couple of weeks, documents a widening gap between the health levels of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians.

"If, using that and other sources, one focuses on groups which cover your ages, the general picture is that, taking account of all causes including injury, indigenous males between the ages of 15 and 24 years are 2.8 times more likely to die than non-indigenous males. Indigenous females within that age group are 3.5 times more likely to die than non-indigenous females.

"The disparity increases even further in the 25 to 34 age bracket. Indigenous males are 5.5 times more likely to die between those ages than non-indigenous males. Indigenous females are 6.1 times more likely to die.

"The disparity becomes even worse if one focuses upon some particular areas of illness. For example, indigenous people die from diabetes related illnesses at 12 times for men and 17 times for women the rate for other Australians.

"The significance of these figures can be viewed from a variety of different perspectives. I tend to view them from the perspective of a hypothetical Aboriginal child destined to grow up in an Aboriginal community.

"Viewed from that perspective, some other figures might be briefly mentioned. Babies born to Aboriginal women average about 200 grams lighter birth than babies born to other Australian women in a context where low birth-weight infants have a greater risk of dying, of requiring a longer period of hospitalisation after birth, and of developing significant disabilities or handicaps.

"Babies born to Aboriginal women are, on average, 5.73 times more likely to be hospitalised than babies born to other Australian women for preventable conditions such as kidney/urinary infection and severe eye, nose and throat infection. The life expectancy of such an Aboriginal baby is between 15 to 20 years less than for other Australian babies.

"However one views those figures, the problem which they represent is one which suggests, must be more effectively addressed in the short period of 4 1/2 years leading up to the centenary of our nation than it has been in the 95 1/2 years that have passed since Federation. And that notwithstanding the dedicated efforts of many government and private professionals.

"Unless it is more effectively addressed, true reconciliation with the Aboriginal peoples will be unlikely and Australia will remain a diminished nation as it enters its second century."