“As we come to the tenth anniversary of Closing the Gap, we have an opportunity to redouble our efforts in the areas where we need to do better and develop a truly national, collaborative approach to improving the lives of First Australians.

We are committed to co-designing the Closing the Gap refresh and that is why the Council will hear from the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples and discuss priorities and objectives for each state and territory over the next 12 months.

I’m looking forward to working together to strengthen relationships, collaborate and demonstrate accountability across and within jurisdictions.”

Minister for Indigenous Affairs Nigel Scullion said that the previous Closing the Gap process had little buy in from states and territories.

The Turnbull Government understands that states and territories play a critical role in improving the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and that’s why it’s so important all governments come together if we are genuine about Closing the Gap.

Ministers from federal, state and territory governments will meet in Canberra today 23 October to focus national efforts on Indigenous policy.

This is the first meeting of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Ministerial Council on Indigenous Affairs.

The Ministerial Council supports collaboration and all governments’ efforts in Indigenous Affairs across Australia, with a focus on the Closing the Gap Refresh, and engagement between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and governments.

 The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has released five new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework 2017 reports (#NSW #VIC #QLD #SA #WA )

Which can be download below.

These reports give the latest information on how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in each state are faring according to various measures of health status and outcomes, determinants of health, and health system performance.

Tier 1—Health status and outcomes

Tier 2—Determinants of health

Tier 3—Health system performance

Indicators are based on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework.

The reports highlight the main areas of improvement, and continuing concern. Example below New South Wales

Summary

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework 2017 report for New South Wales finds both areas of improvement and areas of concern in the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in New South Wales (Table S1).

Areas of improvement for New South Wales include:

• Deaths due to circulatory diseases—the leading cause of death for Indigenous Australians—fell by 27% between 2006 and 2015 (Table 1.23.28).
• Medicare-recorded health assessments for Indigenous Australians rose significantly between 2006–07 and 2015–16, from 30 to 247 per 1,000 (Table 3.04.3).
• A decrease in the infant mortality rate, from 11.7 per 1,000 live births in 1998–2000 to5.2 per 1,000 live births in 2013–2015 (Table 1.20.9). The gap in the low birthweight rate for babies born to Indigenous mothers, compared with non-Indigenous mothers fell from 7.3% in 2001 to 5.0% in 2014 (Table 1.01.3).

Areas of concern for New South Wales include:

• The age-standardised proportion of Indigenous women smoking during pregnancy (45%) was 4 times the rate for non-Indigenous women (11%) in 2014 (Table 2.21.1).
• Death rates from chronic diseases in 2011–2015 were much higher for Indigenous Australians than for non-Indigenous Australians—more than 3 times as high for diabetes (50 compared with 15 per 100,000), and almost twice as high for respiratory diseases (90 compared with 51 per 100,000) (Table 1.23.2).
• Death rates for some cancers in 2011–2015 were much higher for Indigenous Australians than for non-Indigenous Australians—more than 3 times as high for cervical cancer (3.1 compared with 0.9 per 100,000), and almost twice as high for lung cancer (56 compared with 31 per 100,000) (Table 1.23.2).
• The incidence of end-stage kidney disease for Indigenous Australians rose from 6.5 per 100,000 in 1996 to 14 per 100,000 in 2014 (Table 1.10.15).
• Indigenous Australians had higher rates of hospitalisation for injury than non-Indigenous Australians (38 compared with 25 per 1,000) between July 2013 and June 2015. The most common injuries were falls, assault, exposure to inanimate mechanical forces, complications of medical and surgical care, and transport accidents (tables 1.03.3 and 1.03.7 NSW).
• Indigenous Australians had lower rates of hospital procedures than non-Indigenous Australians (63% compared with 80%) between July 2013 and June 2015 (Table 3.06.1).
• The unemployment rate for people aged 15–64 continued to be higher for Indigenous than non-Indigenous Australians (15% compared with 6% in 2014–15) (Table 2.07.5).

Table of contents in each report

Download Reports HERE