Tag Archives: Dr Tom Calma AO

Jan 8 2016

NACCHO Aboriginal Health News: Plain packaging is a plain success for Aboriginal people

Smoking“ The Australian Government has an opportunity to continue, and to accelerate de-normalising tobacco use; addressing the cause of one in five of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths, the estimated 15,000 Australian tobacco related deaths, and the $31.5 billion in tobacco related social and economic costs each year.”

Professor Tom Calma AO, National Coordinator of the Tackling Indigenous Smoking project

As published in Croakey

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Editor: Melissa SweetAuthor: Tom Calmaon: January 07, 2016In: Indigenous health, public health, tobacco control

 

New research suggests that the 2012 introduction of plain packaging and larger pictorial health warnings on cigarette and tobacco packs is proving useful for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Professor Tom Calma AO, National Coordinator of the Tackling Indigenous Smoking project, provides an overview of the findings below, and cautions that more work is needed to reduce the toll of smoking among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The study, Plain packaging implementation: perceptions of risk and prestige of cigarette brands among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, was published by Raglan Maddox, Sarah Durkin andRay Lovett in the latest edition of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.

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Tom Calma writes:

The introduction of plain packaging and associated health warnings has been a success for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, new research suggests.

Research involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in the ACT and surrounding areas found they were better informed about the risks of smoking as a result of the policy.

Before its introduction, they were significantly more likely to mistakenly think that some brands of cigarettes were less harmful than others.

In addition, after the introduction of plain packs, there was a decrease in the proportion of younger Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people indicating that ‘some cigarette brands are more prestigious than others’.

The Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011 and Regulations 2011 prohibits brand imagery, logos, promotional text, and includes restrictions on colour, format, size and materials of packaging, as well as brand and variant names on tobacco products.

Objectives of plain packaging are to reduce the ability of the retail packaging of tobacco products to mislead consumers about the harms of smoking; reduce the attractiveness and appeal of tobacco products to consumers, particularly young people; increase the noticeability and effectiveness of mandated health warnings; and through the achievement of these aims in the long term, as part of a comprehensive range of tobacco control measures, contribute to efforts to reduce smoking rates.

The study’s findings provide important support for regulatory measures to prohibit the use of misleading package imagery in product marketing, as prescribed in Articles 11, 12 and 13 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, as well as the key international and domestic leadership role of the Australian Government.

However, more work is required.

The Australian Government has an opportunity to continue, and to accelerate de-normalising tobacco use; addressing the cause of one in five of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths, the estimated 15,000 Australian tobacco related deaths, and the $31.5 billion in tobacco related social and economic costs each year.

In my role as National Coordinator – Tackling Indigenous Smoking, I am overseeing the Tackling Indigenous Smoking Programme to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities to reduce the number of people smoking and to encourage people not to take up smoking.

The Tackling Indigenous Smoking programme complements and leverages off tobacco control measures—such as plain packaging, increases in tax excise and smoke-free polices—by using innovative and culturally appropriate, community-based approaches to address uptake and smoking by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

In continuing to act locally, working nationally we should take the leadership role to improve, increase and establish national initiatives, such as improving accessibility to Nicotine Replacement Therapies (NRT), expanding smoke-free areas and establishing all prisons to be smoke-free across the country.

Reducing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who smoke is essential in realising the goal of closing the gap in health status equality and life expectancy.

With strong leadership and by working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves, we can halve the Indigenous smoking rate over the next decade and give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people more opportunity to live long and healthy lives.

Other key findings from the study:

  • It is fundamentally deceptive and misleading to allow a continuation in the perception that some cigarettes are less hazardous than others, including so-called ‘additive free’, ‘natural’ or ‘lower tar’ cigarettes, given that conventional cigarette brands present the same level of risk.
  • Government agencies committed to tobacco control should investigate regulating the use of brand imagery, logos and promotional text on tobacco.

For information on how to stop smoking, please call the Quitline on 13 78 48, visit www.icanquit.com.au or your local Aboriginal Medical Service, GP or medical practitioner.

Nov 4 2015

“Indigenous youth imprisonment rate is highest in two decades,” Amnesty says

Original Story on The Guardian by 

Money spent on jailing Indigenous Australians should be funnelled instead into community programs to stop them offending in the first place, a leading academic has said.

Australian National University professor Tom Calma made his call after a report showed that Indigenous offenders with mental illness were over-represented in the New South Wales prison system.

Calma, the adjunct professor of the ANU’s centre for Indigenous studies, said the incarceration rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders with mental illness was deeply concerning.

State and commonwealth governments must take a “community empowerment” approach via justice reinvestment programs, he said. The initiative redirects money that is being used to lock up prisoners to community programs that treat the underlying cause of offending.

Calma told Guardian Australia that the initiatives have a proven track record.

“Governments have to be brave,” he said. “The economics are there. It’s been proven in the United States, where 20 or so states have signed up to the justice reinvestment program.”

The programs have also been successful in the NSW towns of Bourke and Cowra.

He said that too often mental illness and cognitive disability in Indigenous people goes undiagnosed and untreated, which can lead to incarceration rather than appropriate treatment and intervention.

“We need to look at what is the catalyst for the mental health issues,” he said.

The University of NSW report highlights some of the underlying causes or exacerbators of mental illness for Indigenous Australians.

Those include the prevalence of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (Fas-D), drug and alcohol abuse, exposure to trauma and high rates of poverty and homelessness, which may prohibit seeking treatment.

The report also noted that Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders have contact with law enforcement authorities at a younger age, making them more susceptible to serving jail time.

Of the nearly 33,800 prisoners in Australia, 27% – or 9,200 – are Indigenous, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has found.

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Aug 10 2015

NACCHO International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples: Ensuring Indigenous peoples’ health and wellbeing”.

IDWID

“This International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, I want us all to reflect on health and its links to reconciliation. Better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians will inevitably come through better health. Better health for our people has the effect of building stronger education and employment outcomes, financial security, social participation and respect. Better health is about the social, cultural, emotional and spiritual wellbeing of the individual, the family and the community. Better health is very clearly linked to the positive outcomes of reconciliation.”

Dr Tom Calma AO from #IDWIP Message

The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, a United Nations event commemorated worldwide, is celebrated on 9 August each year. The theme for 2015 is “Post 2015 agenda: Ensuring Indigenous peoples’ health and wellbeing”.

Since 2002, Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) have been working together on initiatives to improve Indigenous people’s health. To commemorate this year’s event, contributors from these organizations and Cochrane have prepared a series of Special Collections focusing on health issues relevant to Indigenous people.

Internationally, the health of Indigenous peoples continues to be inequitable. The International Working Group on Indigenous Affairs reported that: “Indigenous peoples remain on the margins of society: they are poorer, less educated, die at a younger age, are much more likely to commit suicide, and are generally in worse health than the rest of the population.”[1]

Since 2002, Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) have been signatories to an agreement on trilateral cooperation to improve Indigenous people’s health.[2] Regularly updated, the agreement commits the three agencies to working collaboratively to improve the health of Indigenous peoples through sharing of best practice, information, and expertise.

Priorities for research identified in the current agreement include fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and suicide prevention, both the focus of Cochrane Library Special Collections. A third Special Collection on diabetes reflects the burden of disease attributable to this chronic condition on Indigenous peoples worldwide and its status within the Global Alliance for Chronic Disease as a research priority.[3]

There are 713,600 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, comprising about 3% of the Australian population.[4] Over one-third are less than 15 years of age. In Aotearoa New Zealand, with a total population of around 4.25 million at the 2013 census, nearly 600,000 (15%) identified Māori as one or only ethnicity, with a comparatively youthful median age of 24 years.[5] Canada’s First Peoples comprise approximately 1.4 million First Nations, Inuit, and Métis, representing 4.3% of the total Canadian population.[6] These three groups, like their counterparts in Australia and New Zealand, are young and growing compared with non-Indigenous populations. The median age for First Nations people is 26 years of age and for Métis, age 31, while Inuit are the youngest of the three groups, with a median age of 23 years.[6]

In Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand average life expectancy of Indigenous people continues to lag behind non-Indigenous counterparts by 10 and 7 years, respectively.[7,8] In Canada, the life expectancy for First Nations and Métis is on average 5 to 6 years less; and for Inuit, the lag is 10 to 15 years, whereby Inuit have the lowest projected life expectancy of all groups in Canada.[9] These numbers underplay the human and economic costs, loss of potential, and cultural impact of this life expectancy gap. Eliminating ethnic inequities is documented as a priority in almost every jurisdiction but remains a challenge.

Research has a mixed reputation among Indigenous communities, who have considered research harmful, damaging, insensitive, and exploitative.[10] A large number of research projects have been implemented to serve the professional, political, and academic needs of non-Indigenous researchers, with little or no translation into improving health outcomes.

Keeping community interests and priorities central in research is paramount to addressing the factors that impact health in Indigenous communities. These factors are unique to and vary between each group and cannot be compared to the same factors affecting the health of non-Indigenous citizens.

In our developed and wealthy nations such health inequities justify inquiry and action. In the past, research often resulted in harm as well as lost opportunity for mutual learning and development. Furthermore this ‘done to’ approach inevitably fosters ‘victim-blame’ analyses and discourses that are unable to encompass the broader determinants and root causes of inequity. These include structural and societal features, including the historic and contemporary effects of colonisation and racism.

Systematic reviews of good-quality studies have provided the foundation for evidence-based guidelines for clinical practice and improved health outcomes for specific conditions, and therefore may be useful in eliminating Indigenous health disparities. But alternative research approaches are also needed. To be relevant to decision-making in countries with disparities in health outcomes among Indigenous peoples it is particularly important that the authors of Cochrane Reviews interpret their results through the lens of the broader determinants of inequity. This will more readily facilitate the introduction of healthcare practices, policies, and systems that will ultimately enable Indigenous health developm

The Special Collections, available on the Cochrane Library, focus on available Cochrane evidence in three topic areas, each of which has significant health implications for Indigenous populations:  diabetes, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, and suicide prevention:

Diabetes

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders

Suicide prevention

Two accompanying editorials reflect on the health and societal contexts in which evidence can contribute to informed research and treatment decision-making:

Improving health outcomes for Indigenous peoples: what are the challenges?

Can Cochrane Reviews inform decisions to improve Indigenous people’s health?

Acknowledgements
These Special Collections were prepared with the collaboration and support of the following individuals and organizations:

  • Canadian Institutes of Health Research – Institute of Aboriginal Peoples’ Health: Malcolm King, Cynthia Stirbys
  • Health Research Council (New Zealand) – Māori Health Research: Rachel Brown, Jaylene Wehipeihana
  • National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia) – Research Policy and Translation: Samantha Faulkner, Davina Ghersi
  • Cochrane Centres: Sue Brennan, Sally Green, Steve McDonald, Jordi Pardo Pardo
  • The Cochrane Editorial Unit
  • Professor Jonathan Craig, Cochrane Kidney and Transplant Group

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Aug 25 2014

NACCHO smoke free news: Aboriginal smoking program cuts risk widening the gap

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Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease and early death among Indigenous Australians, with smoking responsible for about one in every five deaths.

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Among Indigenous Australians, tobacco use contributes to 80% of all lung cancer deaths, 37% of heart disease, 9% of all strokes and 5% of low birth-weight babies. And in central Australia, rates of pneumonia among children are reported to be the highest in the world, reaching 78.4 cases per 1,000 children every year.

Although we are seeing reductions in smoking rates across Australia, 42% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (TSI) people are daily smokers, compared to 16% in the non-Indigenous population. In some remote communities this estimate is as high as 83%.

Smoking is also higher among vulnerable groups: up to two-thirds of Indigenous women continue to smoke during pregnancy, and around 39% of young people aged 15 to 24 years are smoking daily.

You’d think governments would be redoubling their efforts to address the problem. Not so. In fact, the Australian government has recently announced funding cuts of A$130 million over five years to the Tackling Indigenous Smoking program, which amounts to more than one-third of the program’s annual funding.

Tackling Indigenous Smoking funds teams of six health workers to run tailored anti-smoking programs. Each is designed with input and involvement from each community and employ local quit-smoking role models who help other smokers quit by offering advice and support.

Benefits of quitting

We know that quitting smoking reduces the risks of heart disease, lung cancer and other smoking-related issues.

But there are also significant benefits for the health-care system and Australian longer-term budget’s. A recent South Australian study led by Professor Brian Smith, for instance, helped smokers to quit while in hospital and found a direct saving to the hospital budget of A$6,646 per successful quitter within just 12 months.

Another study estimated that the economic impact from just an 8% reduction in the prevalence of tobacco smoking in Australia would result in 158,000 fewer incident cases of disease, 5000 fewer deaths, 2.2 million fewer lost working days and 3000 fewer early retirements. Overall, an 8% reduction in smoking would reduce health sector costs by AU$491 million.

Assessing and funding what works

One of the complicating factors is that the success of Indigenous anti-smoking programs has been patchy. A review I recently published in the Cochrane Collaboration found significant shortcomings for Indigenous quit smoking and youth tobacco prevention programs.

Only one quit smoking study, which was performed in the Northern Territory by Dr Rowena Ivers, met the quality criteria. Dr Ivers’ study found that free nicotine patches might benefit a small number of Indigenous smokers. But none of the study participants completed the full course of nicotine patches and only seven people from the original total of 111 reported that they had quit smoking at six months.

This study suggests programs using nicotine patches can help Indigenous smokers to quit. But much more evidence is needed to determine what options really are the most effective.

Likewise, another review of tobacco prevention programs among young people found potentially harmful results, with one of the three identified studies showing lower smoking rates in the control population. This means that children who received the tailored tobacco prevention program did worse than the youth in the control group who received nothing at all.

It is important to continue evaluating Tackling Indigenous Smoking programs so we know whether or not they work and can direct funding to programs that make a difference. So it’s concerning that part of the funding that is being cut from the budget relates to reviewing these programs.

A long way to go

Five years into the Tackling Indigenous Smoking project, the government has invested a substantial amount of time and money into developing these culturally-tailored programs. Preliminary data released by the government in April found a 3.6% fall in Indigenous daily smoking rates between 2008 and 2013 and a reduction in smoking during pregnancy of 3%.

But cutting resources will make it impossible to meet the program’s ambitious goal of halving Indigenous smoking rates by 2018.

There is still a long way to go. Research shows many health-care workers and some doctors who treat smokers do not believe they have the skills or ability to offer effective preventive health advice. Worryingly, they also admit to the attitude of “even if I did, it’s not going to work, so why bother”.

This response tells us that much more work and subsequently funding is needed to really address the health gaps that remain between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Tobacco use will remain a problem within our society for as long as we continue to allow it to be one.

Feb 21 2014

NACCHO congratulates Dr Tom Calma Australia’s first Aboriginal male university chancellor

Tom and Justin

“There are now around 180 indigenous doctors and 260 (indigenous) medical students in Australia. However, there are approximately 80,000 doctors registered in Australia, so to reach parity of 3 per cent in the medical profession, it would require over 2400 additional indigenous doctors immediately,”

Dr Tom Calma addressing the National Press Club on Thursday, the same day he became University of Canberra chancellor and the first Indigenous man to hold such a position in Australia.

Pictured above : Tom Calma right being congratulated by NACCHO chair Justin Mohamed on behalf of all NACCHO’s 150 members : Photo Colin Cowell

Indigenous leader Tom Calma has warned the Abbott government that improving Indigenous education outcomes will take more than just getting bums on seats in classrooms.

Dr Calma said attendance was just one measure of success as he addressed the National Press Club on Thursday, the same day he became University of Canberra chancellor and the first Indigenous man to hold such a position in Australia.

University of Canberra report : Dr Tom Calma call for a fairer Australia

Prime Minister Tony Abbott last week proposed a new Close the Gap target to dramatically improve school attendance of Indigenous children within five years.

Calma said improving indigenous education outcomes needed a holistic approach.

“Attendance is only one measure of success,” Calma said.

“Getting people in the door is not going to mean you’re going to learn.”

He said the involvement of indigenous parents in children’s education through reading programs was critical to classroom success.

Other factors included bilingual lessons, fixing the high rate of otitis media or middle ear disease among children and addressing overcrowded houses.

“For every year of education you improve health outcomes, you can’t see any of these issues in isolation,” Calma said.

Earlier on Thursday, Abbott hailed the launch of National Australia Bank’s sixth Reconciliation Action Plan, which encourages Indigenous employment and inclusion.

“A bank should not be foreign country to Indigenous people,” he said.

“A fair go for Aboriginal people means a country where kids go to school, where adults go to work. … because these are the indicators of … happy people living in tranquil communities.”

Calma, a founder of the National Congress of Australia’s First People, expressed his disappointment the Abbott government had scrapped the previous Labor government’s funding commitment to the body.

Last year’s May budget allocated $15 million over three years to the Aboriginal representative body.

“[The money] was in the forward estimates … that’s been reneged on and that’s created a problem,” Calma said.

“A lot of success will happen when people feel included, and their voice is being heard.”

Geoff Richardson, Tom Calma, Julie Tongs and Justin Mohamed

Dr Tom Calma a great supporter of NACCHO

AND THE AUSTRALIAN HAS REPORTED

INCOMING Canberra University chancellor Tom Calma has urged ordinary citizens to financially back scholarships for indigenous students, noting the country still has only one Aboriginal psychiatrist.

Speaking ahead of his inauguration, Dr Calma said only 1.1 per cent of university funding came from donations and bequests, mostly from ageing endowments rather than new philanthropy.

“You don’t have to donate a lot. Workplace giving programs are really important where just a couple of dollars over the course of a week out of the pay packet can go towards a cause,” Dr Calma told the National Press Club.

“They’re small, but they can be enough to help somebody buy books or get over any of the humps they might feel. You don’t have to be rich; you don’t have to go all in any one hit.

“We also see the issue of crowd-funding now starting to gather popularity, and I think universities will start to use that more for research or philanthropic endeavours.

“We can all do it. It’s just a matter of having that mindset to want to do something for somebody else.”

Crowd-funding is an online process whereby individuals pledge money towards a set funding target for a particular project, and are only obliged to donate if that target is reached.

Dr Calma is the second indigenous Australian to serve as a university chancellor. He follows Pat O’Shane, who led the University of New England for nine years until 2003.

But Dr Calma said Australia still lagged behind comparable countries in terms of indigenous academics, noting Canada and New Zealand had trained indigenous doctors in 1866 and 1899 respectively.

“But it was not until 1983 that Helen Milroy graduated from the University of Western Australia as Australia’s first Aboriginal medical doctor. Dr Milroy is also our first and only psychiatrist,” he said.

However, Dr Calma said, there were “encouraging” signs for Australia’s future, with 10,000 indigenous tertiary students currently enrolled.

“There are now around 180 indigenous doctors and 260 (indigenous) medical students in Australia. However, there are approximately 80,000 doctors registered in Australia, so to reach parity of 3 per cent in the medical profession, it would require over 2400 additional indigenous doctors immediately,” he said.

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Feb 17 2014

NACCHO CTG and Aboriginal incarceration rates : Abbott must Close The Gap on black justice

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“If Abbott were to seriously take on the incarceration issue, he would have to openly and actively confront the issue of ongoing systemic discrimination against Indigenous Australians, and acknowledge its historical causes, including colonialism and racism.

That would mean talking to the nation plainly about deaths in custody and acknowledging the fact that a black man can still face violent treatment and be left to die in “protective custody” without police facing serious punishment.” Max Chalmers

According to the latest national figures, indigenous young people – who  comprise just 5 per cent of the population – were detained at a staggering 31  times the rate of non-indigenous young people on an average night in June 2012.  Most were yet to be sentenced (see report below)

School attendance is a far less controversial topic than Indigenous incarceration rates.

No wonder Tony Abbott made it the centrepiece of his ‘Close the Gap’ speech.

In the lead-up to the 2013 election, Tony Abbott took a brief moment out from his relentless denigration of the government to broach a policy area that usually doesn’t make the debate.

Cautiously, he vowed to be a prime minister for Australia’s first peoples.

“It is my hope that I could be, not just a prime minister, but a prime minister for Aboriginal Affairs,” he said

In an address to Federal Parliament yesterday, Abbott took a tentative step towards positioning Indigenous Affairs alongside the government’s holy trinity of policy talking points.

His government is “no less serious [about Indigenous Affairs] than it is about stopping the boats, fixing the budget, and building the roads of the 21st century.”

Putting Indigenous Affairs on the national agenda is a move that should draw praise. But the way Abbott has chosen to frame the issue raises questions about how serious his government really will be in its efforts to help overcome the outrageous disadvantage Indigenous Australians continue to experience.

Indigenous groups were quick to point out one particularly glaring omission from Abbott’s remarks.

“Today, Australia’s national shame is the mass imprisonment of Aboriginal people, particularly young people. Australia’s Aboriginal children are detained at the world’s highest rates,” Phil Naden, the NSW and ACT Aboriginal Legal Service CEO noted in a press release.

“More than half of the young people in detention today (over 52 per cent) are Aboriginal, and most are unsentenced.”

Indigenous incarceration indeed remains a national shame. The Australian Bureau of Statistics paints a bleak picture, with rates of incarceration continuing to rise markedly between 2002 and 2012. West Australia is beyond crisis point, with the rate of incarceration for Indigenous Australians 20 times higher than non-Indigenous.

Source: ABS.

Source: ABS.

Despite the 1991 Royal Commission, deaths in custody have increased, along with the surging incarceration rate. There is little reason to think that the next generation of Indigenous Australians will fare much better.

Instead of raising the issue of justice, Abbott framed his address around education. Truancy rates must be reduced, he said, and the time for excuses was over.

“Generally speaking, the more remote the school, the more excuses are made for poor attendance,” he observed, before pledging to end the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous school attendance within five years. No reference was made to a similar standard with which to target improvements in justice outcomes.

“We were very surprised to hear there was no bipartisan commitment today towards incorporating justice targets into the Government’s Closing the Gap strategy,” Naden said on Wednesday.

Improving rates of Indigenous school attendance is an easy sell to white Australia. Everybody can get on board with sending kids to school; there is an implicit blame placed on Indigenous communities for failing to enforce school attendance, or teach their children adequate patterns of civil behaviour.

“One of the worst forms of neglect is failing to give children the education they need for a decent life,” Abbott said, following the statement up with a list of state and federal government programs designed to lower truancy rates.

But like his entire address, the line was left open, raising the question of who exactly is responsible for that neglect? This is the Liberal Party’s characteristic approach: the individual is to blame for their personal failings and societal causes don’t rate a mention.

If Abbott were to seriously take on the incarceration issue, he would have to openly and actively confront the issue of ongoing systemic discrimination against Indigenous Australians, and acknowledge its historical causes, including colonialism and racism.

That would mean talking to the nation plainly about deaths in custody and acknowledging the fact that a black man can still face violent treatment and be left to die in “protective custody” without police facing serious punishment.

It would mean taking on the state and territory governments – especially the Liberal ones – whose tough on crime policies disproportionately affect their Indigenous constituents.

It would mean investigating and policing routine police brutality, such as the recent taser attack by police on an Indigenous woman in Queensland, in which she lost an eye.

And it would mean facing off against a host of other powerful actors, like the Australian Hotels Association, who have succeeded in reversing the NT government’s efforts to limit liquor supply.

Abbott’s record on the issue is not strong so far. One of the Coalition’s nastiest election eve announcements was the decision to slash $42 million from Aboriginal legal aid, a figure that was significantly reduced after the election but will do much damage.

If he decides to pivot on the issue, and to devote the state’s energy and resources to lowering the almost unbelievable rates of incarceration, he will find a host of allies who are ready to take up the challenge. There is a growing awareness that by focusing state resources on policing and prisons we do nothing to attend to the causes of incarnation.

The justice reinvestment movement is starting to make this case publicly. There are also scores of Indigenous communities finding local solutions to the localised and diverse causes of incarceration.

There is some evidence to suggest the government will start to take an interest in such programs. Warren Mundine, the head of Abbott’s Indigenous Advisory Council today announced a program to help provide jobs training for Indigenous teenagers in WA.

Abbott has frequently used his time in outback Indigenous communities as evidence that he can succeed where so many previous PMs have either failed, or failed to even try. But if he is serious about using his position to help reverse the shameful disparity in living standards between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, he must make justice a top priority

TIME TO MIND THE GAP

Biana Hall SMH

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Imagine if more than half the young people detained in Australia today were  from Sydney. Imagine if they were white. Newspaper letter writers would whip  themselves into a frenzy, GetUp! would run a national campaign and tens of  thousands would take to the streets to march for the freedom of Australia’s  children.

Instead, 53 per cent of young people in detention are indigenous. And instead  of a national outcry, Australia is gripped by a national silence.

According to the latest national figures, indigenous young people – who  comprise just 5 per cent of the population – were detained at a staggering 31  times the rate of non-indigenous young people on an average night in June 2012.  Most were yet to be sentenced.

Last week, Prime Minister Tony Abbott delivered a heartfelt speech on the  government’s progress on the Closing the Gap goals to improve indigenous  people’s health and life expectancy.

The news wasn’t good. Abbott said there had been ”almost no progress” in closing the decade-wide gap between the life expectancies of indigenous people and non-indigenous people. There had been ”very little improvement” towards halving the gap in reading, writing and numeracy, and indigenous employment ”has, if anything, slipped backwards”.

”We are not on track to achieve the more important and meaningful targets,”  Abbott  said.

Declaring that Australia’s challenge was to ”break the tyranny of low  expectations”,  Abbott announced that from next year, indigenous  school-attendance data would be included in the government’s Closing the Gap  measures.

He set an ambitious target to lift the attendance rates of all schools to  more than 90 per cent within five years (in very remote communities, just 31 per  cent of children are meeting the minimum attendance standards).

It’s a very welcome start, but some observers were dismayed at what he didn’t  say: that cutting the incarceration rate of indigenous people should be at the  forefront of attempts to close the gap.

The NSW and ACT Aboriginal Legal Service has long called for justice targets  to become part of the Closing the Gap goals.

Chief executive Phil Naden described the ”mass incarceration” of indigenous  people as Australia’s ”national shame”.

“Disadvantage robs Aboriginal people of a long, healthy life, and the  incarceration of Aboriginal people affects all targets.”

In 2011, a parliamentary inquiry recommended that justice targets become part  of the overall Closing the Gap strategy. Contact with the justice system, it  said, ”represents a symptom of the broader social and economic disadvantage  faced by many indigenous people in Australia”.

”We have reached the point of intergenerational family dysfunction in many  indigenous communities, with problems of domestic violence, alcohol and drug  abuse, inadequate housing, poor health and school attendance, and a lack of job  skills and employment opportunities impacting on the next generation of  indigenous Australians.”

So how, we should be asking, can we pretend the national shame of mass  Aboriginal incarceration isn’t symptomatic of other problems?

For a moment, it looked like the federal government might act. Before  last  year’s election, Labor said it would include justice targets in the Close the  Gap measures. In August, the Coalition’s indigenous affairs spokesman Nigel  Scullion raised expectations when he told The Australian: ”We will be  looking carefully at that and doing research to see how you implement another  gap measure around this justice issue.”

But on Wednesday, the Prime Minister – who in December oversaw $13.4 million  in cuts to indigenous legal aid funding over four years – made no mention of  justice. Abbott said: ”I am confident of this: amidst all the mistakes,  disappointment and uncertain starts, the one failure that has mostly been  avoided is lack of goodwill.”

What we have so often lacked is political will

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/time-to-mind-the-gap-well-overdue-20140215-32sf5.html#ixzz2tWAEtaRw

Feb 10 2014

NACCHO Aboriginal Health News alert :Billions $$$ to be reaped in closing the gap

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AUSTRALIA’S economy would grow by $24 billion and governments would be almost $12bn better off if key gaps between indigenous and non-indigenous people were closed by 2031, according to new modelling released today.

from Rick Morton The Australian

Reconciliation Australia commissioned Deloitte Access Economics to update its 2008 modelling of the economic impacts of social and health equity for Aborigines.

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Investing in Aboriginal community controlled health makes economic sense”

The new research shows Australia’s GDP would grow by 1.15 per cent, more than the 0.95 per cent predicted in 2008, because there are more indigenous people and, in recent times, employment gaps have widened.

The report comes as Reconciliation Australia co-chair Tom Calma threw his support behind the Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council and the Coalition’s Commission of Audit, which he said must find and cut “administrative red tape”.

“We have to have confidence that the council and the commission will look closely at what has gone on in the past, what is working and what is not working,” he told The Australian.

“We need to have a strategic approach to closing the gap, not this bloody whimsical approach we see so often.”

Mr Calma said the approach that had clearly been working started with the Council of Australian Governments commitment in 2007 to the ambitious targets and an increasing interest from the business community in driving indigenous engagement.

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The Deloitte report says the Northern Territory economy would grow by 10 per cent if gaps were closed by 2031, although the biggest gain in absolute terms would be in NSW where the economy would grow by $7.4bn. Governments would save $4.6bn in expenditure — almost $3bn on social security alone — and would earn another $7.2bn from the GST and income and corporate tax revenues.

Closing the gap in education would be associated with an 18 per cent boost to the number of indigenous people with a job, about 26,000 extra in today’s terms.

Similarly for health indicators, 13,000 jobs — 9 per cent more — would be created if equity was achieved.

The report notes some factors which contribute to unemployment include racial discrimination and incarceration rates, which are not easily alleviated.

Indigenous employment was strongest in the health, public administration, retail and education sectors and there was a weak appearance in higher paid jobs.

The vast majority of economic gains — $16.5bn — would be made in regional and remote areas, the report finds.

“Given the variation in circumstances between metropolitan, regional and remote areas of Australia, tailored strategies will be necessary to close the gap in Indigenous outcomes in these different regions,” it says.

To analyse these metropolitan, regional and remote trends Deloitte chose three case study areas from around Australia — Blacktown in Sydney’s west, Fitzroy in North Queensland and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

Less than one-third of indigenous people in Alice Springs are employed, compared to about 40 and 50 per cent respectively in Blacktown and Fitzroy.

“It is interesting to note that non-indigenous employment and labour force participation is higher in Alice Springs than the other areas,” the report says.

“This shows that jobs in Alice Springs are less likely to be filled by Indigenous people and points to the complexity of understanding the causes for regional disparities in Indigenous employment.”

Mr Calma said there had long been a “Canberra-centric” view of indigenous policy and that this needed to change to effectively close gaps

Jan 24 2014

NACCHO justice ANTaR campaign support: Abbott Government delivers a blow to Aboriginal Justice

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“The defunding directly targets ATSILS work with governments to address the drivers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander incarceration.

The cuts will mean that even more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will not be able to access essential legal services and will result in more people ending up in prison.”

Abbott Government delivers a blow to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Justice

ACTION -URGE THE PM to REVERSE THE DECISION HERE

For the last year we have been working towards establishing a national campaign to reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people within the criminal justice system.

Australia’s First People’s are dramatically over-represented in prison statistics. Although Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people comprise only about 2.5 per cent of the Australian population, they make up 26 per cent of the total prison population. This is an imprisonment rate 14 times higher than the non-Indigenous rate.

ANTaR is campaigning to change this unacceptable situation. Significant campaign activity has  been instigated around the release of ‘Doing Time – A Time for Doing : Indigenous youth in the criminal justice system’; the Standing Committee of Attorneys General recommedation that specific COAG targets be set; and the 20th anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

Our campaign goals are to reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in prison and to end Aboriginal deaths in custody.

  1. Aboriginal people are severely over-represented in the criminal justice system.
  2. Decades of inaction on this issue mean the situation is getting worse. Despite the existence of major policy reports and numerous recommendations, most notably the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADC) report, governments have failed to act.
  3. The national Closing the Gap strategy currently does not include imprisonment issues or a justice target. This is a missing link and means there is little national coordination and no national focus on imprisonment rates.
  4. Aboriginal people continue to die in custody – 270 people since the RCIADC report in 1991.
  5. Growing prison populations mean increased costs for taxpayers without breaking the cycle of offending. The system is not working to prevent crime and is not sustainable.

What could change look like?

ANTaR is campaigning for:

  1. The national adoption of a justice target, which commits all governments to reducing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander imprisonment as part of the Closing the Gap strategy.
  2. National action to end deaths in custody including independent investigations into allegations into police misconduct or abuse and independent inspections of all custodial facilities to ensure conditions are safe and humane.
  3. A coordinated, national Justice Reinvestment approach to divert resources over time from prisons into community programs. This would prevent crime, reduce imprisonment rates and create safer communities through better targeted public spending

We received a crushing blow with news that the Abbott Government have decided to defund the lead agency in this campaign, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS).

This is not a cut, this is a complete defunding, meaning that NATSILS will cease to exist if the defunding goes ahead.

NATSILS and law reform and policy officers in state and territory based Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (ATSILS) work with governments to address the underlying causes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander incarceration, through evidenced based policy development, education and diversionary and prevention programs.

The defunding directly targets ATSILS work with governments to address the drivers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander incarceration.

The cuts will mean that even more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will not be able to access essential legal services and will result in more people ending up in prison.

Incarceration rates continue to rise without making communities any safer. In order to turn this situation around we need to develop sound, evidence-based policies. It makes no sense to defund the organisations best able to do this.

You can help!  Add your voice to urge the Prime Minister to take this matter in hand and reverse the decision to defund NATSILS and the policy officer positions in state and territory based ATSILS.

ACTION -URGE THE PM to REVERSE THE DECISION HERE

Enter your details and a short message which we will send on your behalf to the following politicians:

  • The Hon Tony Abbott MP, Prime Minister
  • The Hon Joe Hockey MP, Treasurer
  • Senator the Hon George Brandis QC, Attorney-General
  • Senator the Hon Nigel Scullion, Minister for Indigenous Affairs

Help us send a strong message now. Tell our nation’s leaders  “You can’t get smart on crime if you cut out the knowledge base.”

Send your letter now. 

How you can help

Help our campaign by staying in touch, donating to ANTaR and telling your friends about ANTaR and the need to reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the criminal justice system.

Jan 17 2014

NACCHO health alert: Report documents Aboriginal people are 50 per cent more likely to die from cancer than other Australians

Cancer

Cancer in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia: an overview is one of a series of reports commissioned by Cancer Australia and developed in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

DOWNLOAD THE AIHW REPORT

Report

This report provides, for the first time, a comprehensive summary of population-level cancer statistics across a number of states and territories in Australia for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples alongside comparative figures for non-Indigenous Australians

. It aims to document key cancer statistics to inform health professionals, policy makers, health planners, educators, researchers and the broader public of relevant data to understand and work towards reducing the impact of cancer for Indigenous Australians.

On average, per day, around two Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are diagnosed with cancer and there is just over one cancer-related death.

Somokes

Importantly, this report identifies significant differences between Indigenous Australians and their non-Indigenous counterparts. While incidence rates for cancer overall were marginally higher for Indigenous peoples, mortality and survival differences between the two population groups were more marked with cancer mortality rates 1.5 times higher and survival percentages 1.3 times lower for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

This report also looks at the 10 most commonly diagnosed cancers as well as the 10 most commonly reported causes of cancer deaths for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia, accounting for over 60% of cancers in these groups. Lung cancer was both the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer deaths for this population group. Differences between gender and across age groups are also identified.

Transcript of the ABC interview:

In a recent interview on ABC’s , Mark Colvin discussed findings from the Australian Institute of Health and Cancer Australia which indicates that Indigenous people are 50 per cent more likely to die from cancer than other Australians.

MARK COLVIN: It may be the most deadly reality of closing the gap: Indigenous people are 50 per cent more likely to die from cancer than other Australians. And that’s just one of the shocking findings contained in a new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and Cancer Australia. It’s the first comprehensive investigation into increased cancer rates among Indigenous Australians.

MANDIE SAMI: Cancer in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples of Australia: An Overview is the first comprehensive summary of cancer statistics for Indigenous Australians.

The head of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s cancer and screening unit, Justin Harvey, says the report reveals disturbing facts.

JUSTIN HARVEY: Indigenous Australians are approximately 50 per cent more likely to die from cancer than non-Indigenous Australians and that’s quite a big difference between the two. The rate of new cases for Indigenous Australians is also higher and survival from cancer is poorer.

MANDIE SAMI: Kristin Carson is the chair of the Indigenous Lung Health working party for the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand. She says it’s sad that she’s not shocked by the findings.

KRISTIN CARSON: This is something that has been going on for such a long time. I mean, we know that there is a disparity in health between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. It’s actually atrocious.

A lot of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians who see this probably already know it. They live this. This is the reality and I guess it’s these types of more shocking statistics that bring the kind of problems that we’re having to light.

MANDIE SAMI: The CEO of Cancer Australia, Professor Helen Zorbas, says there are a number of reasons why there’s such a huge discrepancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

HELEN ZORBAS: Those factors definitely include tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, poor diet, lower levels of physical activity and higher levels of infections such as hepatitis B. In addition to that, Indigenous peoples are less likely to participate in screening programs.

Also, the proportion of Indigenous people who live in regional and rural and remote areas is higher than for non-Indigenous people and therefore access to care and services – we have a higher proportion of Indigenous people who discontinue treatment.

MANDIE SAMI: The head of the Institute’s cancer and screening unit, Justin Harvey, says even the types of cancer most prevalent among Indigenous Australians are different.

JUSTIN HARVEY: In terms of the most commonly diagnosed cancers for Indigenous Australians, these were lung cancer, followed by breast cancer in females and bowel cancer. Whereas for non-Indigenous Australians, the most commonly diagnosed were prostate cancer, followed by bowel cancer and breast cancer in females.

MANDIE SAMI: Mr Harvey says the report shows there needs to be more health promotion campaigns and services targeting Indigenous Australians.

JUSTIN HARVEY: The most important thing is that the information is used in looking at what are the needs and how best to address those needs.

MANDIE SAMI: That call has been backed by Kristin Carson. She says there’s also a need to evaluate whether current campaigns like these are working.

ACTOR, ANTI-SMOKING AD: I was smoking but I quit. If I can do it, I reckon we all can.

ACTOR 2, ANTI-SMOKING AD: Not quitting is harder.

MANDIE SAMI: Ms Carson says all Australians have a moral obligation to ensure that improving the health of Indigenous Australians is a national priority.

KRISTIN CARSON: Talk with community members, find out what we should be doing, and again, it highlights that we really need to be looking at research or evaluations in this area to try and better address this problem.

MANDIE SAMI: Associate Professor Gail Garvey is a senior researcher in cancer and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health at the Menzies School of Health.

She hopes the findings will make policymakers realise the devastating effect cancer is having on Indigenous populations.

GAIL GARVEY: Other areas, you know, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, kidney disease, which are all very important in their own right, tend to get the sort of focus, where cancer has just been sort of creeping behind all the other illnesses and diseases thus far.

So I think this report will give us a chance and give governments and health professionals and communities an opportunity now to actually look at what’s happening, you know, in black and white in this report, what’s happening nationally. And hopefully we can do something more about it than what’s currently being done.

MARK COLVIN: Associate Professor Gail Garvey, ending Mandie Sami’s report

For more information visit the ABC’s 2pm website

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Jan 15 2014

NACCHO Smoke Free News : Indigenous smoking rates declining-Tom Calma

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“We know that when provided appropriately targeted information and encouraged to lead the solutions, Indigenous people are responding in an overwhelmingly positive manner.  

But, while the decline of smoking is encouraging, we need to be sure we don’t become complacent.  

The challenge to reduce smoking or not take it up is immense and will require a sustained and well-funded effort to really make a difference for our people and close the healthy inequality gap.”

Dr Tom Calma AO National Coordinator Tackling Indigenous Smoking

Smoke

The recent release of the Victorian Cancer Council report highlighting that one in ten smokers do not believe that smoking causes illness, only a quarter of smokers could link smoking with heart attacks and half with lung cancer means that there is still work to do.

Two in five Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to smoke, with one in five dying due to tobacco related illness and costing too many of our peoples’ lives every year.  This burden is too high and emphasises the importance and the urgency needed to continue, and accelerate, efforts to tackle smoking.

However, there are encouraging signs. This research also shows a dramatic increase in awareness of the effects of second-hand smoke on children and unborn babies and generally, strong public awareness of the harms of smoking.

This also follows the promising signs from the 2012-13 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey which showed that the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people smoking is decreasing, declining 10% over the last decade. The survey also showed a decrease in smoking uptake, with more than one third (37.2%) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults never smoking (up from 30% in 2002).

Tackling Indigenous smoking programmes are making traction through a population health and capacity development and empowerment approach.

We know that when provided appropriately targeted information and encouraged to lead the solutions, Indigenous people are responding in an overwhelmingly positive manner.  But, while the decline of smoking is encouraging, we need to be sure we don’t become complacent.  The challenge to reduce smoking or not take it up is immense and will require a sustained and well-funded effort to really make a difference for our people and close the healthy inequality gap.

ABS 2012-13 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey: CLICK HERE

The Perceptions about health effects of smoking and passive smoking among Victorian adults 2003-2011 report found

  • about a quarter of the smokers surveyed could not spontaneously say that heart attacks were caused by smoking.
  • the data also shows less than 10 per cent of current smokers can connect smoking with asthma, gangrene, eye problems or pregnancy problems.
  • And only half of all smokers surveyed could spontaneously link smoking with lung cancer.

Source:

Smoke-Free1

Contact the NACCHO SMOKE free team

Contact the NACCHO TATS Talking About The Smokes team

Cancer Council Victoria releases fresh research on the attitudes of smokers, to mark the anniversary of the 1964 report by the US Surgeon General.

On the 50th anniversary of a landmark report linking smoking to cancer, a new report shows one in 10 smokers do not believe smoking causes illness.

Cancer Council Victoria is releasing fresh research on the attitudes of smokers, to mark the anniversary of the 1964 report by the US Surgeon General.

The survey of 4,500 Victorians was conducted by the charity and included a cross-section of smokers and non-smokers.

Todd Harper from Cancer Council Victoria says about a quarter of the smokers surveyed could not spontaneously say that heart attacks were caused by smoking.

He says the data also shows less than 10 per cent of current smokers can connect smoking with asthma, gangrene, eye problems or pregnancy problems.

And only half of all smokers surveyed could spontaneously link smoking with lung cancer.

“I think what we’ve also seen is some improvement over that period of time, we have a majority of people who recognise the harms of passive smoking, but we still have much more to do,” he said.

“Given that smoking still kills 15,000 people every year, given that smoking will kill one in two long-term users, I think it shows the importance and the urgency of keeping up the fight on tobacco.

“We can’t assume for a second that this job is done when we have 15,000 a year in Australia dying because of smoking.”

Health groups call for tougher tobacco laws

Mr Harper says there needs to be tighter licensing rules governing where cigarettes can be sold in some states, and higher licensing fees in the states that have an existing regulatory environment.

Shops do not need a licence to sell cigarettes in Queensland or Victoria.

Licensing arrangements exist in the other states and territories, but Mr Harper says the licences are far too cheap.

“It’s a remarkable contradiction that cigarettes are more freely available than milk and bread, I think we do need to look at ways of restricting the availability of tobacco products,” he said.

“We also need to be doing more to invest in public education campaigns to encourage smokers to quit and to continue to build on the success that we’ve had with smoke-free environments.

“What we’d like to see is that tobacco products weren’t freely available, particularly in places were children are likely to be frequenting.

“So that might be achieved by for example, increasing licence fees for sellers of tobacco products and I think we can also do more to extend smoke-free environments.

“We don’t do enough to recognise that selling tobacco products is not a right, it’s a privilege, these are products that kill one in two long-term users.

“So we do need to see a fee that is appropriate for the level of harm that’s caused and certainly in many cases, we’re seeing fees in the order of hundreds of dollars rather than thousands of dollars which might be a more appropriate starting point.”

A report published in the American Medical Journal this week says despite progress in reducing the prevalence of daily smoking since the 1980s, the number of smokers has “steadily increased” worldwide due to population growth.

The report says: “Although many countries have implemented control policies, intensified tobacco control efforts are particularly needed in countries where the number of smokers is increasing.”

It says between 1980 and 2012, the estimated prevalence of daily smoking for men declined from 41.2 per cent to 31.1 per cent, and women fell from 10.6 per cent to 6.2 per cent.

But it says more than 50 per cent of men are smoking in countries including Indonesia, Laos, Papua New Guinea and East Timor.

50th anniversary of landmark US report linking cigarettes to cancer

Saturday marks 50 years since the US Surgeon General Luther Terry released his report linking cigarettes to cancer.

Simon Chapman is the Professor of Public Health at the University of Sydney.

“This was the second big review after the English reviewed the evidence, which pulled everything together, all the research that existed and said ‘this is a major health problem’, it set the scene for years to come and has caused literally hundreds of millions of people to give up smoking,” Professor Chapman said.

“The Surgeon General is the leading office that pulls together reports about health in the United States and they’ve produced many reports over the years on smoking.

“I think people had understood for many years, people had understood expressions like smoking ‘stunted your growth’, but people had never really understood that smoking was a leading cause of death, in fact it kills more people in the world today than any other single cause.

“This really consolidated that evidence and said that the science was in on it, that smoking killed, as we know today, about half of people who are long term users.”

In 1964, smoking rates sat around 70 per cent for men and 30 per cent of women.

Since then, smoking rates among adults have more than halved, with current figures putting the smoking rate at 17.5 per cent.

Professor Chapman says there was little response in Australia at the time to the report.

“I think that many people found it difficult to take on board that smoking was as harmful as the report concluded, but in the years since that message has been amplified over and over again,” he said.

“There is really nothing in the history of medical science which is so conclusively demonstrated as the relationship of smoking to disease.

“Publicity which the report attracted immediately started causing many people to give up smoking, if you looked at what was happening particularly post-war, smoking was going up and up and up, and when those reports came out it started immediately going down and it’s been going down ever since.

“The tobacco industry were, predicably, very aggressive in their criticisms of the report. They started hiring tamed scientists who travelled around the world including to Australia, saying ‘Oh, it’s air pollution that’s doing this, it’s not cigarette smoking’, it was genetic and issues like that were raised continually by them.

“Unfortunately in Australia we had to wait 10 years for the government to take its first action which was to put very tiny health warnings on the bottom of cigarette packs.

“There was a lot of political pressure, there were a lot of connections of the tobacco industry into government, some of our leading politicians, documents show, had friendly relations with the tobacco industry at the time and so I think that they were reluctant to act against an industry which was in their own words, just another business.”