- Joint Council on CTG Co-Chair interviewed
- Voice won’t usurp CTG
- Detention of kids in adult prisons must stop
- 500 new First Nations health workers
- Australia fails to meet trachoma targets
- Thrive by Five backs call for funding guarantee
- Sector Jobs
- Save the Date – Wear it Purple Day
The image in the feature tile is of Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians and Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health, Senator the Hon Malarndirri McCarthy, NACCHO CEO and Lead Convener of the Coalition of Peaks, Pat Turner and Minister for Indigenous Australians, the Hon Linda Burney MP in Adelaide today for the Joint Council on Closing the Gap. Image source: The Coalition of Peaks Facebook page, 26 August 2022.
Joint Council on CTG Co-Chair interviewed
The ALP has made a commitment to Close the Gap, a strategy aimed at closing the health and life expectancy gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous people within a generation. The policy was refreshed under the Coalition government with a Joint Council set up to oversee it. The group is meeting with the responsible minister today, Linda Burney. The Council Co-Chair, Pat Turner, who is also the Lead Convener of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations (the Coalition of Peak) and NACCHO CEO spoke with Sabra Lane on ABC Radio AM earlier this morning.
Ms Turner spoke about what needs to be prioritised to meet the CTG targets. Ms Turner said the priorities have to be:
- shared decision-making partnerships between Aboriginal leadership and Torres Strait Islander leadership with government where they are negotiating for new arrangements, so we have to be at the table and have equal decision-making arrangements in place.
- build and strengthen the community-controlled service sector to deliver services, because we do it much better than mainstream or anywhere else and we get better outcomes.
- mainstream organisations like youth detention police services, hospitals etc. they have to become places that are more culturally respectful in their dealings and culturally safe places for Aboriginal and Torres State Islander people
You can listen to Pat Turner’s interview from 7:15 minutes of the recording here.
Earlier today the Coalition of Peaks issued a media release Joint Council on Closing the Gap meets in Adelaide, available here, outlining the ‘hefty agenda’ aimed to progress actions under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.
Members of Joint Council on Closing the Gap, Adelaide 26 August 2022. Image source: Coalition of Peaks Facebook page.
Voice won’t usurp CTG
Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney has dismissed concerns enacting a voice to parliament would come at the expense of closing the gap outcomes. The Joint Council on Closing the Gap is meeting today for the first time since 2021. Ms Burney said closing gaps in key health and education areas between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians remained a top priority for the government. As debate continues on a referendum to enshrine an Indigenous voice to parliament in the constitution, she said both were just as important.
“It is wrong to suggest that that agenda (of the voice) will be usurping the agenda of closing the gap. They are part and parcel of the same thing,” she said. “Unless First Nations people are living lives of choice and chance, just like other Australians, then we cannot ever hold our heads high in the space of Indigenous affairs.”
To view The Canberra Times article Voice won’t usurp closing gap: Burney in full click here.
Minister Linda Burney. Photo: Tanja Bruckner. Image source: Women’s Agenda.
Detention of kids in adult prisons must stop
The peak body of psychiatrists in Australia has called on the Federal and state and territory governments to stop the detention of children in adult prisons. In light of the recent events at Banksia Hill Youth Detention Centre (WA), the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) has staunchly opposed the detention of children in adult facilities and urged governments to prioritise the mental health of children detained in the juvenile system.
RANZCP President Vinay Lakra highlighted that research shows over 75% of young persons in detention have one or more psychiatric disorders that need treatment. “Youth detention is associated with increased risks of suicidality and psychiatric disorders including depression, substance use, and behavioural disorders. Detaining young children and putting their future at risk should be the absolute last resort.”
To view the RANZCP media release Psychiatrists say the detention of children in adult prisons must stop in full click here.
Photo: Matt Davidson. Image source: WAtoday.
500 new First Nations health workers
Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, said the Australian Government is progressing on a commitment to train 500 new First Nations health workers to fill gaps across the health system, ahead of the Joint Council on Closing the Gap in Adelaide today. National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) is working hand-in-hand with the Australian Government to design the program to ensure it meets the needs of First Nations people, and the health services which care for them. The program will support up to 500 First Nations trainees to undertake Certificate III or IV accredited training to enable them to work in various health settings and deliver culturally appropriate care to First Nations peoples.
To view the joint media release from Minister Burney and Senator McCarthy Closing the Gap in Health click here.
Image source: Aboriginal Workforce Development webpage of CommunitySkills WA website.
Australia fails to meet trachoma targets
NT artist Lena Campbell watched her late grandmother go blind from the impacts of trachoma — now she is trying to stop the next generation from going down the same path. She lives in Titjikala, a town more than 100 kms south of Alice Springs that sits among the red sands of the Simpson Desert, and the dust is a normal part of daily life. But dusty conditions are a common contributor to the preventable eye-disease trachoma.
Trachoma is caused by infection with the Chlamydia trachomatis bacterium, which is spread easily through personal contact, sharing bedding and even from flies that have picked it up. Most days, kids living in Titjikala aged from two to 14 years run around the basketball court — sharing hula hoops and kicking the footy around. Ms Campbell calls the kids to a big watering trough, where they lather up with soap and splash their faces with water. “If the parents are not here, I look after them to stay clean,” she explains. “Especially after school, the kids come out here and play and we usually ask them to wash their hands and faces in case of trachoma, in case of sore eyes.”
Australia is the highest-income country to still have endemic trachoma, according to the World Health Organization. Environmental factors such as housing conditions play a major part in countering this blinding disease. Ms Campbell is considered one of the “stronger ladies” in her community for speaking up for residents. She’s upset that trachoma still exists in Indigenous communities like hers even though cities were able to eradicate the disease 100 years ago.
To read the ABC News article Trachoma still exists in remote Indigenous communities as Australia fails to meet eradication targets in full click here.
Titjikala kids are learning how to keep their eyes – and faces – clean. Photo: Stephanie Boltje, ABC News.
Thrive by Five backs calls for funding guarantee
Minderoo Foundation’s Thrive by Five initiative supports calls made by the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC), for the Federal Government to reinstate funding for Indigenous-led child and family centres across Australia. The Childcare Deserts and Oasis Report, recently completed by the Mitchell Institute, highlights that families located in areas defined as inner regional (42.6%), outer regional (62.6 %), remote (87.5%), and outer remote (79.9%) are more likely to be living in a childcare desert compared to families living in major cities. This lack of early learning and care is exacerbated in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities which is contributing to poorer outcomes for children.
To view the Minderoo Foundation media release Thrive by Five backs call to guarantee funding for Indigenous-led early learning and childcare click here.
Sector Jobs
Sector Jobs – you can see sector job listings on the NACCHO website here.
Advertising Jobs – to advertise a job vacancy click here to go to the NACCHO website Current job listings webpage. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find a Post A Job form. You can complete this form with your job vacancy details – it will then be approved for posting and go live on the NACCHO website.
Wear it Purple Day
Wear It Purple strives to foster supportive, safe, empowering and inclusive environments for rainbow young people, with a focus on four key areas:
Awareness – We provide support and resources for Schools, Universities, Gender & Sexuality Alliances (GSA’s) and Youth Organisations to assist them in creating inclusive experiences for rainbow young people. We act as a source of resources to support the effective delivery of Wear It Purple Day in Schools, Universities, Workplaces and the broader community.
Opportunity – We provide meaningful opportunities for rainbow young people to develop their skills, expand their network and contribute to the inclusivity of their communities.
Environment – We provide supportive and safe spaces (digital and physical) and contribute to a world where young rainbow people feel proud of who they are.
Collaboration – We collaborate and unite with other organisations to further the inclusion of rainbow young people. Through partnerships, we support the effective delivery of Wear It Purple Day in Schools, Universities, Workplaces and the broader community.
An Australian Human Rights Commission article Brotherboys, Sistergirls and LGBT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, available here, describes how Brotherboys, Sistergirls and other LGBT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples experience a number of significant and intersecting points of discrimination and marginalisation in Australia.
For more information about Wear it Purple Day click here.
