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August 30, 2001 Media Release

INDIGENOUS HEALTH STATISTICS - OUR NATIONAL SHAME

The New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council today called on State and Federal Governments to take a closer look at Indigenous health in Australia, and to acknowledge their failure to address the real issues at the heart of the problem.

Commenting on the release of the joint report on Indigenous health from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Institute of Health and Welfare, NSWALC Chairman Rod Towney said it was time Governments listened to communities and acknowledged what was truly ailing them.

"It is our disadvantage which is making us so sick. It's our disadvantage which is killing us 20 years earlier than our counterparts in the non-Indigenous community.

"Poor diet, poverty, unemployment and the social problems which follow are killing our people, and all of these problems can be traced back to the loss of our land, and with it the loss of our culture, our heritage, our identity and self esteem.

"Until Governments adequately address the issue of land rights, and until they recognise the need for self determination in Aboriginal communities, these problems will continue," Chairman Towney said.

NSWALC Secretary and Chairperson of the Yerin Aboriginal Medical Service on the NSW Central Coast, Veronica Graf, called on Governments to get their act together on funding for Indigenous health.

"Nothing's changed. We've known for decades about the appalling statistics," Ms Graf said. "But at the Yerin Medical Service at Wyong, we can't even afford to pay the doctors, they volunteer.

"Yerin specifically targets Indigenous health problems and serves a large Aboriginal population on the Central Coast, and yet we can't even get federal funding. We're struggling to survive. It's a disgrace.

"We're telling them what we need, but they're not listening. They're spending millions on Aboriginal health, but its not reaching the communities. That money must be better targetted.

"It's all very well for the Prime Minister to shake his head and talk about practical reconciliation, as he steadfastly refuses to apologise for the Stolen Generations, but where are the results?" Ms Graf said.

NSWALC Chairman Rod Towney agreed.

"There's something drastically wrong when we live in a first world country, but the health standards of its Indigenous communities are at third world standards," he concluded.