“A lot of our people are doing well now and we have enough knowledge and leadership to take ownership of this so that we can help out the significant minority of our people who are caught up in crime. I agree there is a bottom line that the children have to be kept in safe places until such time as they can be reconnected with family
Professor Ted Wilkes, Chairman of the National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol Committee
A coalition of Aboriginal agencies should be given funding and control to set up hostels for neglected children and rehabilitation centres for their parents, indigenous leader Ted Wilkes said yesterday.
Responding to a call by Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan for the Government to remove children from their parents, Associate Professor Wilkes said simply putting more Aboriginal children into foster care was pointless.
Professor Wilkes, whose roles include chairman of the National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol Committee and one of the State Government’s ambassadors for children and young people, said it was time for Aboriginal people to solve their own problems.
He has started work to form a coalition, including the Aboriginal Legal Service and health services, to make a funding proposal for hostels for children at risk.
“We would want to work in partnership with the police, justice system and education department, and the private sector,” he said.
A coalition of Aboriginal agencies should be given funding and control to set up hostels for neglected children and rehabilitation centres for their parents, indigenous leader Ted Wilkes said yesterday.
Responding to a call by Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan for the Government to remove children from their parents, Associate Professor Wilkes said simply putting more Aboriginal children into foster care was pointless.
Professor Wilkes, whose roles include chairman of the National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol Committee and one of the State Government’s ambassadors for children and young people, said it was time for Aboriginal people to solve their own problems.
He has started work to form a coalition, including the Aboriginal Legal Service and health services, to make a funding proposal for hostels for children at risk.
“We would want to work in partnership with the police, justice system and education department, and the private sector,” he said.
“A lot of our people are doing well now and we have enough knowledge and leadership to take ownership of this so that we can help out the significant minority of our people who are caught up in crime. I agree there is a bottom line that the children have to be kept in safe places until such time as they can be reconnected with family.
“We could build structures and look after the children and their parents could have visiting rights when they’ve sobered up and have time with the children once they’ve become stable and got a home.”
Professor Wilkes said the Aboriginal community desperately needed appropriate substance addiction facilities.
“Alcohol should never be underestimated but amphetamines are becoming the preferred choice,” he said. “The use of cannabis and amphetamines is a lot higher in the Aboriginal world and that’s directly connected to disadvantage.
“It’s an escape.
“We did research at the Telethon Institute about the life-stress events that our kids are dealing with and they’re off the scale.”
‘The use of cannabis and amphetamines is a lot higher in the Aboriginal world.'”
“We could build structures and look after the children and their parents could have visiting rights when they’ve sobered up and have time with the children once they’ve become stable and got a home.”
Professor Wilkes said the Aboriginal community desperately needed appropriate substance addiction facilities.
“Alcohol should never be underestimated but amphetamines are becoming the preferred choice,” he said. “The use of cannabis and amphetamines is a lot higher in the Aboriginal world and that’s directly connected to disadvantage.
“It’s an escape.
“We did research at the Telethon Institute about the life-stress events that our kids are dealing with and they’re off the scale.”
‘The use of cannabis and amphetamines is a lot higher in the Aboriginal world.'”
You can hear more about Aboriginal health .Alcohol and other drugs at the NACCHO SUMMIT
The importance of our NACCHO member Aboriginal community controlled health services (ACCHS) is not fully recognised by governments.
The economic benefits of ACCHS has not been recognised at all.
We provide employment, income and a range of broader community benefits that mainstream health services and mainstream labour markets do not. ACCHS need more financial support from government, to provide not only quality health and wellbeing services to communities, but jobs, income and broader community economic benefits.
A good way of demonstrating how economically valuable ACCHS are is to showcase our success at a national summit.
Senator Peris said in the Northern Territory an indigenous woman is 80 times more likely to be hospitalised for assault than other Territorians.
“I shudder inside whenever I quote that fact because it makes me picture the battered and bloodied women we see far too often in our hospitals.
“Every single night our emergency departments in the Northern Territory overflow with women who have been bashed.”
Picture above :Senator Nova Peris along with Opposition colleagues addressing the NACCHO board at Parliament House Canberra this week
LABOR’S first indigenous MP Nova Peris has challenged the Australian Medical Association to advocate for more action in tackling alcohol-related domestic violence.
In a powerful speech, Senator Peris said alcohol-related domestic violence was on the rise and ruining the lives of Aboriginal women.
She told the launch of the AMA’s national women’s health policy that the AMA must use its high standing in the community to “advocate for more action in tackling alcohol-related domestic violence”.
SEE AMA Position Statement on Women’s Health below
“Today I call on the AMA to formally adopt a policy position that supports the principle that people who have committed alcohol-related domestic violence be banned from purchasing alcohol at the point of sale.
“The technology to implement point-of-sale bans exists; it is cost effective and has been proven to work.”
Senator Peris said in the Northern Territory an indigenous woman is 80 times more likely to be hospitalised for assault than other Territorians.
“I shudder inside whenever I quote that fact because it makes me picture the battered and bloodied women we see far too often in our hospitals.
“Every single night our emergency departments in the Northern Territory overflow with women who have been bashed.”
In 2013, domestic violence assaults increased in the Northern Territory by 22 per cent, she said.
She criticised the incoming NT government’s August 2012 decision to scrapped the banned drinker register.
“For those of you who may not be familiar with the banned drinker register, or BDR as it is also known, it was an electronic identification system which was rolled out across the Northern Territory.
“This system prevented anyone with court-ordered bans from purchasing takeaway alcohol — including people with a history of domestic violence.
“Around twenty-five hundred people were on the banned drinker register when it was scrapped. “Domestic violence perpetrators were again free to buy as much alcohol as they liked. As predicted by police, lawyers and doctors, domestic violence rates soared.”
Senator Peris said she had met with doctors, nurses and staff from the emergency department in Alice Springs and they confirmed these statistics represent the true predicament they faced every day.
“Every night the place is awash with the victims of alcohol fuelled violence, with the vast majority of victims being women.”
She said the Northern Territory faces enormous issues with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
“We have such high rates of sexually transmitted infections, especially and tragically, with children.
“Rates of smoking are far too high, and diets are poor and heart disease is widespread.”
Senator Peris’s speech was well received by the AMA, which committed to taking on her challenge.
AMA SHINES LIGHT ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND THE HEALTH NEEDS OF DISADVANTAGED AND MINORITY GROUPS OF WOMEN
AMA Position Statement on Women’s Health 2014
The AMA today released the updated AMA Position Statement on Women’s Health.
The Position Statement was launched at Parliament House in Canberra by the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women, Senator Michaelia Cash, Senator for the Northern Territory, Nova Peris, and AMA President, Dr Steve Hambleton.
Dr Hambleton said that all women have the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
“The AMA has always placed a high priority on women’s health, and this is reflected in the breadth and diversity of our Position Statement,” Dr Hambleton said.
“We examine biological, social and cultural factors, along with socioeconomic circumstances and other determinants of health, exposure to health risks, access to health information and health services, and health outcomes.
“And we shine a light on contemporary and controversial issues in women’s health.
“There is a focus on violence against women, including through domestic and family violence and sexual assault.
“These are significant public health issues that have serious and long-lasting detrimental consequences for women’s health.
“It is estimated that more than half of Australian women have experienced some form of physical or sexual violence in their lifetimes.
“The AMA wants all Australian governments to work together on a coordinated, effective, and appropriately resourced national approach to prevent violence against women.
“We need a system that provides accessible health service pathways and support for women and their families who become victims of violence.
“It is vital that the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children is implemented and adequately funded.”
Dr Hambleton said the updated AMA Position Statement also highlights areas of women’s health that are seriously under-addressed.
“This includes improving the health outcomes for disadvantaged groups of women, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, rural women, single mothers, and women from refugee and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds,” Dr Hambleton said.
“We also highlight the unique health issues experienced by lesbian and bisexual women in the community.”
Dr Hambleton said that the AMA recognises the important work of Australian governments over many years to raise the national importance of women’s health, including the National Women’s Health Policy.
“There has been ground-breaking policy in recent decades, but much more needs to be done if we are to achieve high quality equitable health care that serves the diverse needs of Australian women,” Dr Hambleton said.
“Although women as a group have a higher life expectancy than men, they experience a higher burden of chronic disease and tend to live more years with a disability.
“Because they tend to live longer than men, women represent a growing proportion of older people, and the corresponding growth in chronic disease and disability has implications for health policy planning and service demand.”
The Position Statement contains AMA recommendations about the need to factor in gender considerations and the needs of women across a range of areas in health, including:
health promotion, disease prevention and early intervention;
sexual and reproductive health;
chronic disease management and the ageing process;
mental health and suicide;
inequities between different sub-populations of Australian women, and their different needs;
health services and workforce; and
health research, data collection and program evaluation.
Background:
cardiovascular disease – including heart attack, stroke, and other heart and blood vessel diseases – is the leading cause of death in women;
for women under 34 years of age, suicide is the leading cause of death; and
in general, women report more episodes of ill health, consult medical practitioners and other health professionals more frequently, and take medication more often than men.
The AMA Position Statement on Women’s Health 2014 is at
It appears that stationing police officers outside bottle shops in regional towns in the Northern Territory has had a significant impact on alcohol consumption.
The latest figures show consumption has dropped to the lowest level on record, but the statistics do not include the impact of the mandatory rehabilitation policy or punitive protection orders.
The ABC has investigated the situation as a new federal parliamentary inquiry is promising to test the evidence.
On a weeknight in Darwin’s city centre, locals and tourists mingle at Monsoons, one of the pub precinct’s busy watering holes.
Less than a block away, six women have found their own drinking place under the entrance of an office building, sheltered from monsoonal rain.
Most of them are visiting from Indigenous communities on Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria. They’re “long-grassing” – living rough on the city streets.
Northern Territory Labor Senator Nova Peris is here to talk to them.
One of the women, from the Torres Strait Islands, tells the Senator how she is trying to get through a catering course while struggling with homelessness and alcoholism.
“I am doing it. I’m trying to get up and I’m finding it hard,” she said.
In an interview after talking to the “long-grassers”, Senator Peris emphasised how homelessness makes alcohol abuse among Aboriginal people more obvious than alcohol use in the non-Indigenous community in Darwin.
“Those ladies, they weren’t from Darwin, they were from communities that came in, so they’re homeless and they drink when they come into town and it’s easy to get alcohol [in town].”
Senator Peris also blames alcohol abuse for much of the poor health in Aboriginal communities.
“When you look at alcohol-related violence, when you look at foetal alcohol syndrome, when you look at all the chronic diseases, it goes back to the one thing and it’s commonly known as the ‘white man’s poison’,” she said.
Alcohol-related hospital admissions increase, senator says
The Northern Territory has long grappled with the highest levels of alcohol abuse in the country, but figures released recently by the Northern Territory Government show the estimated per capita consumption of pure alcohol dropped below 13 litres last financial year for the first time since records started in the 1990s.
Territory Country Liberals Chief Minister Adam Giles believes a more targeted response by police has made a difference.
But Senator Peris says data released last week tells a different story.
Senator Peris has quoted figures showing an 80 per cent increase in alcohol-related hospital admissions over the past 14 months as evidence that the previous Labor government’s banned drinker register was working.
The Territory Government scrapped the BDR when it won power in September 2012.
Alice Springs-based associate professor John Boffa from the Peoples Alcohol Action Coalition wants to see the consumption figures verified.
“If it’s true, it’s very welcome news and it would reflect the success of the police presence on all of the takeaway outlets across the territory,” he said.
Parties, police association at odds
In regional towns where alcohol-fuelled violence is high, police have been stationed outside bottle shops to check identification.
Anyone living in one of the many Aboriginal communities or town camps where drinking is banned faces the prospect of having their takeaway alcohol seized and tipped out.
Northern Territory Police Association president Vince Kelly believes police resources are being concentrated on doing the alcohol industry’s work.
Mr Kelly has also questioned the will of the two major political parties to introduce long-term alcohol supply reduction measures since it was revealed that the Australian Hotels Association made $150,000 donations in the lead-up to the last Territory election.
“No-one I know gives away $150,000 to someone and doesn’t expect something back in return,” he said.
But Mr Giles dismisses Mr Kelly’s view.
“I don’t respond to any comment by Vince Kelly from the Police Association, I think that he plays politics rather than trying to provide a positive outcome to change people’s lives in the territory,” he said.
Giles stands by alcohol rehab program
The Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister has asked a parliamentary committee to investigate the harmful use of alcohol in Indigenous communities across the country.
The committee is expected to examine the application of new policies in the Territory, including mandatory alcohol treatment that was introduced in July 2013.
People taken into police protective custody more than three times in two months can be ordered to go through a mandatory three-month alcohol rehabilitation program.
The figures showing a drop in consumption pre-date the introduction of mandatory rehabilitation but Mr Giles believes the policy is making a difference.
So far there is not enough evidence to convince Professor Boffa that mandatory treatment is making any difference.
“We just don’t have publically available data on the numbers of people who have completed treatment, [or] how long people who have completed treatment have remained off alcohol,” he said.
One of the women from Groote Eylandt explained how she had been locked up to go through the mandatory treatment program but was now back on the grog.
“I was there for three months and we didn’t like it,” he said.
The Chief Minister’s political stablemate, Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion, has commended the Territory Government for using a mix of police intervention and mandatory rehabilitation, but says jail is not the solution.
“We can’t keep treating people who are sick as criminals. However annoying they might be, people who are alcoholics are ill,” he said.
Alcohol Protection Orders seen to criminalise alcoholism
Police were given the power to issue Alcohol Protection Orders to anyone arrested for an alcohol-related offence, attracting a jail sentence of six months or more.
Aboriginal legal aid services have criticised the orders for criminalising alcoholism.
Priscilla Collins from the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency says the orders are predominantly being handed out to Aboriginal people, threatening jail time if they are breached.
“Alcohol protection orders are really being issued out like lolly paper out on the streets. You can be issued one just for drinking on the street, for drink driving. We’ve already had 500 handed out this year,” she said.
Mr Kelly has welcomed the introduction of APOs as a useful tool but has questioned what they will achieve.
“The community and the Government and everybody else needs to ask itself what the end game is,” he said.
“Are we going to end up with even fuller jails? No matter what legislation we introduce we’re not going to arrest our way out of alcohol abuse and Aboriginal disadvantage in the Northern Territory.”
You can hear more about Aboriginal women’s health at the NACCHO SUMMIT
The importance of our NACCHO member Aboriginal community controlled health services (ACCHS) is not fully recognised by governments.
The economic benefits of ACCHS has not been recognised at all.
We provide employment, income and a range of broader community benefits that mainstream health services and mainstream labour markets do not. ACCHS need more financial support from government, to provide not only quality health and wellbeing services to communities, but jobs, income and broader community economic benefits.
A good way of demonstrating how economically valuable ACCHS are is to showcase our success at a national summit.
“I feel strongly that we should as a nation have some kind of way of giving people in remote parts ccess to fresh food at capital city supermarket prices. It wouldn’t cost us much in relative terms,”
“We give a huge diesel fuel rebate to mining companies and yet we don’t invest in the health of people, particularly children.”
She advocates a junk food tax to reduce the cost of fresh food and encouraging more locally produced food
University of SA Professor Kerin O’Dea
The Ngaanyatjarra Health Service (NACCHO member) provides health care to 2300 people living in a dozen communities across the Great Victorian and Gibson Deserts of central WA.
Chief executive Brett Cowling said the burden of chronic disease was “huge” and still growing in many remote areas.
But he said the problem was being tackled, and in some cases reversed, by the communities themselves
PICTURE ABOVE: Foodbank WA runs breakfast programs in more than 400 schools across the state, providing shelf-stable food and working with communities to make positive health behaviour changes.
WOULD you pay about $9 for six mushrooms at your supermarket in Perth? Or a similar amount for a piece of broccoli?
Probably not – but this is what people living in some of the most remote parts of WA are being asked to fork out for fresh produce.
The cost of fruit and vegetables in some of the state’s indigenous communities can be as much as three to four times that of supermarkets in Perth.
It is a cited as one of the reasons for the high rate of chronic health problems, including obesity, diabetes and renal failure, in Aboriginal communities.
– Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians have the fourth highest rate of type 2 diabetes in the world.
– It is estimated 10-30 per cent of Indigenous Australians may have the condition, but many are undiagnosed.
– Rates are between three and five times higher compared to non-Indigenous people in all age groups over 25 years.
– 39 per cent of the Aboriginal population over the age of 55 has diabetes.
– Deaths from diabetes were seven times more common for Indigenous people than for non-Indigenous people between 2006 and 2010.
– Hospitalisations for kidney complications among Indigenous people are 29 times higher than for other Australians.
Source: Diabetes WA
University of South Australia researcher Kerin O’Dea wants nutritious food to be subsidised and for doctors in remote areas to prescribe food like medicines.
University of SA Professor Kerin O’Dea. Source: News Limited
“I feel strongly that we should as a nation have some kind of way of giving people in remote parts ccess to fresh food at capital city supermarket prices. It wouldn’t cost us much in relative terms,” she said.
“We give a huge diesel fuel rebate to mining companies and yet we don’t invest in the health of people, particularly children.”
She advocates a junk food tax to reduce the cost of fresh food and encouraging more locally produced food.
The idea of subsidising fresh fruit and vegetables was supported by Winthrop Professor Jill Milroy of the Poche Centre for indigenous Health at the University of Western Australia.
“Getting good, healthy food is really important and it needs to be addressed. It probably has to be subsidies because there is a lot of cost factors in getting food up there,” she said.
Department of Health nutrition policy adviser Dr Christina Pollard said the cost of healthy food was up to 29 per cent higher in rural areas compared to capital cities.
Welfare recipients also need to spend 50 per cent of their disposable income to achieve a healthy diet compared with 15 per cent nationally, the author of the Department’s Food Access and Cost Survey said.
“To get the food there, to keep it fresh and of good quality costs a lot more,” the adjunct researcher at Curtin University said.
“Food in general is more expensive, but healthy food is disproportionately expensive, particularly things like fruit and vegetables which need to be transported under refrigeration and don’t have a long shelf life.”
The Ngaanyatjarra Health Service provides health care to 2300 people living in a dozen communities across the Great Victorian and Gibson Deserts of central WA.
Chief executive Brett Cowling said the burden of chronic disease was “huge” and still growing in many remote areas.
But he said the problem was being tackled, and in some cases reversed, by the communities themselves.
At community-owned stores the price of fresh food is being kept low by not applying transport costs and in some areas full-strength soft drinks have been pulled from the shelves.
“Subsidies are being discussed, and are an option, but I have seen the same results through good community governance and where the community have worked towards that outcome themselves,” he said.
“That always has to be best possible solution.”
Outback Stores was established six years ago to ensure food security in remote communities and today manages 10 community-owned shops in Western Australia.
Chief executive Steve Moore said by keeping the cost of fresh food low consumption of fruit and vegetables was up 13 per cent compared to last year.
The sale of water bottles has also more than doubled since the firm did a deal with Coca-Cola Amatil to sell 600ml bottles of its Mount Franklin water for $1.
“I don’t believe a subsidy or a tax will solve the problem,” he said. “We are making ground, but it’s small steps. It’s time and education that will make the difference.
“People are more aware of what they should and shouldn’t consume. Restricting products has never worked because people will just travel to get it.”
Foodbank WA runs breakfast programs in more than 400 schools across the state, providing shelf-stable food and working with communities to make positive health behaviour changes.
As well as getting around the high costs by supplying frozen and tinned produce, Foodbank encourages residents of remote communities to use bushtucker.
“Traditional methods are important and it’s important culturally to keep those going,” Stephanie Godrich, Foodbank WA regional strategy co-ordinator, said.
“We need to acknowledge that Aboriginal people have a lot to offer us.”
What is in a 600ml bottle of cola?
65.4 grams of sugar – The equivilant of 16 teaspoons
1044 kilojoules (100 per cent of energy comes from sugar)
“I know that it has been said within the Coalition that health and education will have to take some funding hits,” Dr Brown said. “We cannot possibly progress this nation unless we are investing more in health and education, public health and education, so that we all have an equal opportunity at what that represents. I will absolutely be pushing the health bandwagon.”
Dr Ngiare Brown, Warren Mundine’s deputy on the government’s indigenous council, says ‘it’s often the layers of red tape and bureaucracy that suck up the resourcing’. Source: News Corp Australia Exclusive: Patricia Karvelas Photo: Ray Strange
ABORIGINAL doctor Ngiare Brown and NACCHO Executive Research Manager has vowed to use her new role as deputy head of Tony Abbott’s indigenous council to argue that cuts to indigenous health or education would be detrimental to efforts to close the disadvantage gap.
Dr Brown, who was in one of the first groups of Aboriginal medical graduates in Australia and previously an indigenous health adviser to the Australian Medical Association, was yesterday appointed as Warren Mundine’s deputy after receiving the backing of council members and the Prime Minister.
In an interview with The Australian, Dr Brown said she supported the priorities of the new council to boost school attendance and enhance economic independence. Given her background in health, she would also articulate the need for better health for indigenous people.
Mr Mundine said Dr Brown was a fantastic choice for deputy.
“I’m glad that all the council members and the PM support this move,” he said. “She’s very well experienced and she’s a great asset as deputy chair.”
In January, Mr Mundine said it was unrealistic to expect indigenous affairs spending to be immune from expected budget cuts and that, despite being the head of Mr Abbott’s indigenous advisory council, he could not cast a “force field” to exempt Aborigines from the broader budget agenda.
Dr Brown said she believed existing funding could be better spent, with less on bureaucracy, but urged that there be no net reduction in health and education.
“It is about school attendance but also performance and successful completion, pathways into opportunities into employment and further education,” she said.
“Being economically stable, too, all of those things we can’t do unless we are healthy. And the best model that we have for health service delivery in this country and comprehensive primary care are the Aboriginal community control health services.”
She said she was “absolutely” worried about cuts.
“I know that it has been said within the Coalition that health and education will have to take some funding hits,” Dr Brown said. “We cannot possibly progress this nation unless we are investing more in health and education, public health and education, so that we all have an equal opportunity at what that represents. I will absolutely be pushing the health bandwagon.”
She said if targets were to be achieved, cuts should not come from indigenous affairs.
“They should not be coming from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health,” she said. “They should not be coming from the public health system in particular nor the public education system. Because every child, every individual, every citizen has a right to those systems and they should be supported by government.”
She said waste on bureaucracy was concerning. “I am all about effectiveness and efficient spend,” she said. “But I am also about investment and if you look at community-based services they are extraordinary exemplars of how we can do it well and, in many instances, it’s often the layers of red tape and bureaucracy that suck up the resourcing.”
You can hear Dr Ngiare Brown speak at the NACCHO SUMMIT
The importance of our NACCHO member Aboriginal community controlled health services (ACCHS) is not fully recognised by governments.
The economic benefits of ACCHS has not been recognised at all.
We provide employment, income and a range of broader community benefits that mainstream health services and mainstream labour markets do not. ACCHS need more financial support from government, to provide not only quality health and wellbeing services to communities, but jobs, income and broader community economic benefits.
A good way of demonstrating how economically valuable ACCHS are is to showcase our success at a national summit.
Imagine watching a film that tells the truth about the terrible injustices committed over 225 years against your people, a film that reveals how Europeans, and the governments that have run our country, have raped, killed and stolen from your people for their own benefit.
Now imagine how it feels when the people who benefited most from those rapes, those killings and that theft – the people in whose name the oppression was done – turn away in disgust when someone seeks to expose it.”
Adam Goodes is the Australian of the Year and plays AFL for the Sydney Swans.: “It takes courage to tell the truth, no matter how unpopular those truths may be.” Photo: Rohan Thomson
“Put simply, reconciliation hasn’t worked in Australia because as a nation, we continue to refuse to face up to our real past. Just as you cannot have reconciliation without justice, you can’t have justice without truth”
Sol Bellear reviewing the movie Utopia (see below ) Sol is the chairman of the Aboriginal Medical Service, Redfern and a long-time Aboriginal activist.
Hostility to John Pilger’s film a denial of nation’s brutal past-Adam Goodes
For the last few weeks, I’ve seen a film bring together Aboriginal people all over Australia. The buzz around Utopia – a documentary by John Pilger – has been unprecedented. Some 4000 people attended the open-air premiere in Redfern last month – both indigenous and non-indigenous Australians – and yet little appeared in the media about an event that the people of Redfern say was a ”first”. This silence has since been broken by a couple of commentators whose aggression seemed a cover for their hostility to the truth about Aboriginal people.
When I watched Utopia for the first time, I was moved to tears. Three times. This film has reminded me that the great advantages I enjoy today – as a footballer and Australian of the Year – are a direct result of the struggles and sacrifices of the Aboriginal people who came before me.
Utopia honours these people, so I think the very least I can do is honour Utopia and the people who appeared in it and made it.
It takes courage to tell the truth, no matter how unpopular those truths may be. But it also takes courage to face up to our past.
That process starts with understanding our very dark past, a brutal history of dispossession, theft and slaughter. For that reason, I urge the many fair-minded Australians who seek genuine prosperity and equality for my people to find the courage to open their hearts and their minds and watch Utopia.
Imagine watching a film that tells the truth about the terrible injustices committed over 225 years against your people, a film that reveals how Europeans, and the governments that have run our country, have raped, killed and stolen from your people for their own benefit.
Now imagine how it feels when the people who benefited most from those rapes, those killings and that theft – the people in whose name the oppression was done – turn away in disgust when someone seeks to expose it.
Frankly, as a proud Adnyamathanha man, I find the silence about Utopia in mainstream Australia disturbing and hurtful. As an Australian, I find it embarrassing. I also see an irony, for Utopia is about telling the story of this silence.
Some say the film doesn’t tell the ”good stories” out of Aboriginal Australia. That’s the part I find most offensive.
Utopia is bursting at the seams with stories of Aboriginal people who have achieved incredible things in the face of extreme adversity. Stories of people like Arthur Murray, an Aboriginal man from Wee Waa, and his wife, Leila, who fought for several decades for the truth over the death in police custody of their son Eddie.
Their quiet, dignified determination helped spark the 1987 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, a landmark inquiry that still plagues governments today.
Even before that, Murray led a historic strike of cotton workers and forced employers to provide better wages and conditions for Aboriginal workers. How is this achievement negative?
The film also features Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, a strong Aboriginal woman who proudly speaks of truth and a long overdue treaty.
The work of Robert and Selina Eggington is also profiled in Utopia. After the suicide of their son, Robert and Selina created a healing centre in Perth called Dumbartung. Its aim is to stop the deaths and provide an outlet for the never-ending grief of so many Aboriginal families.
I reject any suggestion that by telling those stories, that by honouring these lives, Pilger has ”focused on the negative”. Their achievements may not fit the mainstream idea of ”success” but they inspire me and other Aboriginal people because they’re shared stories. They are our courageous, unrecognised resistance.
Nana Fejo, another strong Aboriginal woman, appears in Utopia. She tells of her forced removal as a child. It’s a heart-wrenching story and yet she speaks with a graciousness and generosity of spirit that should inspire all Australians.
Like Fejo, my mother was a member of the stolen generations. My family has been touched by suicide, like the Eggingtons. My family and my people talk of truth and treaty, just like Kunoth-Monks does. My family has been denied our culture, language and kinship systems, like all the Aboriginal people who feature in Utopia. This extraordinary film tells the unpleasant truth. It should be required viewing for every Australian.
Utopia brought back were not pleasant, and large sections of the film simply made me angry
Sol is the chairman of the Aboriginal Medical Service, Redfern and a long-time Aboriginal activist
It’s the new mantra in Aboriginal affairs: get your kids to school.
Prime Ministers Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd were fond of saying it. So too is Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
While I don’t accept that education alone, or rather a lack of access to it, explains the desperate poverty in
But if it’s good enough for blackfellas, then it should also be good enough for whitefellas.
Mainstream Australia has long lacked a real education about Aboriginal people, about our shared history, and this nation’s brutal past.
Fortunately, there’s a simple way in – an opportunity to get a “punter’s guide” to the truth about the treatment of Aboriginal Australians.
John Pilger’s latest film, Utopia – a 110-minute feature length documentary more than two years in the making – should be required viewing for all Australians, in particular lawmakers.
I watched the film recently and it brought back many memories for me. Admittedly, a few of them were pleasant. The spirit of my people has always helped to sustain and inspire me, and watching old warriors such as Vince Forrester, Bob Randall and Rosie Kunoth-Monks, for me at least, took the edge off some of the hard truths in Utopia.
But many of the memories Utopia brought back were not pleasant, and large sections of the film simply made me angry.
During the 1970s, I travelled the nation with Fred Hollows. We travelled across Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory, treating Aboriginal men, women and children for trachoma and other eye diseases, problems which still plague remote Aboriginal communities today.
The Australia I saw in Utopia this week is the same Australia I saw with Hollows.
Very little has changed on the ground.
Attitudes in non-Aboriginal Australia, it seems, have not evolved much either.
In one part of the film, Pilger is taken on a tour of Rottnest Island by a local Aboriginal elder, Noel Nannup. But it’s not the tour tourists get – despite “Rotto’s” history as a brutal concentration camp, today it is a resort and luxury spa, with virtually all traces of its past erased.
The stories around deaths in custody; around an Aboriginal elder being cooked, literally, in the back of a prison van; around government and media deceit that led to the Northern Territory intervention; all made for infuriating viewing.
But for me, Pilger’s interview with the former indigenous health minister, Warren Snowdon, and the responses of white people on Australia Day who were asked why they thought Aboriginal people didn’t celebrate January 26, were the real nuggets in the film.
For Snowdon’s part, he was grilled about why, after 23 years in office, his constituents were still among the sickest and poorest on earth. Snowdon’s seething, bombastic response was to label the question “puerile”.
And then there were the vox pops from mainstream Australians on January 26, 2013. People were asked why they thought Aboriginal people didn’t celebrate the date. Most seemed to have no idea that was even the case, and others were just openly hostile.
To me, it’s these attitudes of indifference, and sometimes outrage when challenged, that are the real elephants in the room for this country.
The denial of our history, and our collective refusal to accept the truths of our past are the biggest hurdles to Aboriginal advancement.
I hope that people who see Utopia will have their consciences pricked. Those who do might feel embarrassed or ashamed. But I hope that’s not the only reaction. I hope, above all else, Utopia starts a long overdue national conversation.
We can’t just sweep aside the truths in Utopia because they’re uncomfortable. And we can’t let conservative commentators make it all about the film-maker rather than the film, which is what often happens with Pilger’s work.
I’m bracing myself for the inevitable focus on Pilger’s “style” and his “bias”. So before it comes, let me give you one assurance: You’d be hard-pressed to find many Aboriginal people with whom Utopia won’t resonate strongly.
The reason why is simple: what John Pilger and his co-director Alan Lowery have produced is a substantial work of truth, one which provides answers to many of the questions Australians have been too afraid to ask.
Why is this happening? Why were there no reparations to the stolen generations? Why do Aboriginal people still live in such grinding poverty? If, as Snowdon concedes in the film, the NT intervention was “wrong-headed” and “stupid”, why did he continue and extend it under the Rudd and Gillard governments?
The most pressing question from my perspective is why has reconciliation in this country failed?
Pilger touches on this in his closing remarks. He makes the point that until Aboriginal people are delivered justice, there can never be reconciliation.
I agree strongly. But I would add that the path to justice begins with the truth.
That’s a reality that nations such as Canada and South Africa recognised many years ago, when they established their respective Truth and Reconciliation Commissions.
Put simply, reconciliation hasn’t worked in Australia because as a nation, we continue to refuse to face up to our real past. Just as you cannot have reconciliation without justice, you can’t have justice without truth.
Through Utopia, Pilger sheds some light on those truths. It’s likely to be very uncomfortable viewing for many Australians, and it will inevitably cause pain.
But you’ll find the overwhelming majority of Aboriginal people are prepared to watch Utopia, and feel the hurt all over again.
The real question is how many non-Aboriginal Australians have the courage to watch this film, educate themselves a little, and feel the hurt for the first time?
* Sol Bellear is the chairman of the Aboriginal Medical Service, Redfern and a long-time Aboriginal activist.
The importance of our NACCHO member Aboriginal community controlled health services (ACCHS) is not fully recognised by governments.
The economic benefits of ACCHS has not been recognised at all.
We provide employment, income and a range of broader community benefits that mainstream health services and mainstream labour markets do not. ACCHS need more financial support from government, to provide not only quality health and wellbeing services to communities, but jobs, income and broader community economic benefits.
A good way of demonstrating how economically valuable ACCHS are is to showcase our success at a national summit.
“On an individual level, exposure to racism is associated with psychological distress, depression, poor quality of life, and substance misuse, all of which contribute significantly to the overall ill-health experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Prolonged experience of stress can also have physical health effects, such as on the immune, endocrine and cardiovascular systems.”
“If you (Indigenous patient) go to a health service and you’re made to feel unwelcome, or uncomfortable or not deserving or prejudged and there are lots of scenarios of Aboriginal people being considered to be perhaps being seriously intoxicated when in fact they’ve been seriously ill.”
It’s well known that Indigenous Australians have much lower life expectancy than other Australians, and have disproportionately high rates of diseases and other health problems.
Could that in part be due to racism?
Would cultural awareness training for health professionals would reduce the incidence of racism ?
Should governments acknowledge and address the impact of factors such as racism on health outcomes?
These are some of the question being asked in the health and community sectors, amid reports of a rise in racist incidents.
How racism affects health
The impact of racism on the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can be seen in:
inequitable and reduced access to the resources required for health (employment, education, housing, medical care, etc)
inequitable exposure to risk factors associated with ill-health (junk food, toxic substances, dangerous goods)
stress and negative emotional/cognitive reactions which have negative impacts on mental health as well as affecting the immune, endocrine, cardiovascular and other physiological systems
engagement in unhealthy activities (smoking, alcohol and drug use)
disengagement from healthy activities (sleep, exercise, taking medications)
It’s well known that Indigenous Australians have much lower life expectancy than other Australians, and have disproportionately high rates of diseases and other health problems.
Could that in part be due to racism?
The Social Determinants of Health Alliance is a group of Australian health, social services and public policy organisations.
It lobbies for action to reduce inequalities in the outcomes from health service delivery.
Chair of the Alliance, Martin Laverty, has no doubt racism sometimes comes into play when Indigenous Australians seek medical attention.
“When an Indigenous person is admitted to hospital, they face twice the risk of death through a coronary event than a non-Indigenous person and concerningly, Indigenous people when having a coronary event in hospital are 40 percent less likely to receive a stent* or a coronary angiplasty. The reason for this is that good intentions, institutional racism is resulting in Indigenous people not always receiving the care that they need from Australia’s hospital system.”
Romlie Mokak is the chief executive of the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association.
Mr Mokak says the burden of ill health is already greater amongst Indigenous people – but this isn’t recognised when they go to access health services.
“Whereas Aboriginal people may present to hospitals often later and sicker, the sort of treatment they might get once in hospital, is not necessarily reflect that higher level of ill health. We’ve got to ask some questions there and why is it that the sickest people are not necessary getting the equitable access to healthcare.”
Mr Mokak says many Indigenous people are victims of prejudice when seeking medical services.
“If you (Indigenous patient) go to a health service and you’re made to feel unwelcome, or uncomfortable or not deserving or prejudged and there are lots of scenarios of Aboriginal people being considered to be perhaps being seriously intoxicated when in fact they’ve been seriously ill.”
But Romlie Mokak from the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association says the onus shouldn’t be on the federal government alone to improve the situation.
He suggests cultural awareness training for health professionals would reduce the incidence of racism.
“Not only is it at the point of the practitioner, but it’s the point of the institution that Aboriginal people must feel that they are in a safe environment. In order to do this, it’s not simply that Aboriginal people should feel resilient and be able to survive these wider systems, but those services really need to have staff that have a strong understanding of Aboriginal people’s culture, history, lived experience and the sorts of health concerns they might have and ways of working competently with Aboriginal people.”
Martin Laverty says at a recent conference, data was presented suggesting an increase in the number of Australians experiencing racism.
And he says one of the results is an increase in psychological illnesses.
“We saw evidence that said about 10 percent of the Australian population in 2004 was reporting regular occurences of individual acts of racism and that that has now double to being close to 20 percent of the Australian population reporting regular occurences of racism. We then saw evidence that the consequences of this are increased psychological illnesses. Psychological illnesses tied directly to a person’s exposure to racism and discrimination and that this is having direct cost impacts of the Australian mental health and broader acute health system.”
Mr Laverty says it’s time governments acknowledged and addressed the impact of factors such as racism on health outcomes.
He says a good start would be to implement the findings of a Senate inquiry into the social determinants of health, released last year.
“In the country of the fair go, we should be seeing Australian governments, Australian communities acting and indentifying these triggers of racism that are causing ill health and recognising that this is not just something the health system that needs to respond to, but the Australian government can respond by implementing the Senate inquiry of March 2013 that outlines the set of steps that can be taken to overcome these detriments of poor social determinants of health.”
Racism a driver of Aboriginal ill health
On an individual level, exposure to racism is associated with psychological distress, depression, poor quality of life, and substance misuse, all of which contribute significantly to the overall ill-health experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Prolonged experience of stress can also have physical health effects, such as on the immune, endocrine and cardiovascular systems.
In July 2013, the former federal government launched its new National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan.
As with all such plans, much depends on how it is implemented. With the details of how it is to be turned into meaningful action yet to be worked out, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, communities and organisations and others will be reserving their judgment.
Nevertheless, there is one area in which this plan breaks new ground, and that is its identification of racism as a key driver of ill-health.
This may be surprising to many Australians. The common perception seems to be that racism directed towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is regrettable, but that such incidents are isolated, trivial and essentially harmless.
Such views were commonly expressed, for example, following the racial abuse of Sydney Swans footballer Adam Goodes earlier this year.
However, the new health plan has got it right on this point, and it is worth looking in more detail at how and why.
So how common are racist behaviours, including speech, directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people?
A key study in Victoria in 2010-11, funded by the Lowitja Institute, documented very high levels of racism experienced by Aboriginal Victorians.
It found that of the 755 Aboriginal Victorians surveyed, almost all (97 per cent) reported experiencing racism in the previous year. This included a range of behaviours from being called racist names, teased or hearing jokes or comments that stereotyped Aboriginal people (92 per cent); being sworn at, verbally abused or subjected to offensive gestures because of their race (84 per cent); being spat at, hit or threatened because of their race (67 per cent); to having their property vandalised because of race (54 per cent).
Significantly, more than 70 per cent of those surveyed experienced eight or more such incidents in the previous 12 months.
Other studies have found high levels of exposure to racist behaviours and language.
Such statistics describe the reality of the lived experience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Most Australians would no doubt agree this level of racist abuse and violence is unwarranted and objectionable. It infringes upon our rights – not just our rights as indigenous people but also our legal rights as Australian citizens.
But is it actually harmful? Is it a health issue? Studies in Australia echo findings from around the world that show the experience of racism is significantly related to poor physical and mental health.
There are several ways in which racism has a negative effect on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s health.
First, on an individual level, exposure to racism is associated with psychological distress, depression, poor quality of life, and substance misuse, all of which contribute significantly to the overall ill-health experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Prolonged experience of stress can also have physical health effects, such as on the immune, endocrine and cardiovascular systems.
Second, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people may be reluctant to seek much-needed health, housing, welfare or other services from providers they perceive to be unwelcoming or who they feel may hold negative stereotypes about them.
Last, there is a growing body of evidence that the health system itself does not provide the same level of care to indigenous people as to other Australians. This systemic racism is not necessarily the result of individual ill-will by health practitioners, but a reflection of inappropriate assumptions made about the health or behaviour of people belonging to a particular group.
What the research tells us, then, is that racism is not rare and it is not harmless: it is a deeply embedded pattern of events and behaviours that significantly contribute to the ill-health suffered by all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.
Tackling these issues is not easy. The first step is for governments to understand racism does have an impact on our health and to take action accordingly. Tackling racism provides governments with an opportunity to make better progress on their commitments to Close the Gap, as the campaign is known, in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. The new plan has begun this process, but it needs to be backed up with evidence-based action.
Second, as a nation we need to open up the debate about racism and its effects.
The recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Constitution is important for many reasons, not least because it could lead to improved stewardship and governance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health (as explored in a recent Lowitja Institute paper, “Legally Invisible”).
However, the process around constitutional recognition provides us with an opportunity to have this difficult but necessary conversation about racism and the relationship between Australia’s First Peoples and those who have arrived in this country more recently. Needless to say, this conversation needs to be conducted respectfully, in a way that is based on the evidence and on respect for the diverse experiences of all Australians.
Last, we need to educate all Australians, especially young people, that discriminatory remarks, however casual or apparently light-hearted or off-the-cuff, have implications for other people’s health.
Whatever approaches we adopt, they must be based on the recognition that people cannot thrive if they are not connected.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people need to be connected with their own families, communities and cultures. We must also feel connected to the rest of society. Racism cuts that connection.
At the same time, racism cuts off all Australians from the unique insights and experiences that we, the nation’s First Peoples, have to offer.
Seen this way, recognising and tackling racism is about creating a healthier, happier and better nation in which all can thrive.
Pat Anderson is chairwoman of the Lowitja Institute, Australia’s National Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research.
“You need to look at the community. You need to engage the community in the initiatives and the things that can work have to be owned and obviously embraced and I think once you achieve that, the more successful things that I’ve seen, heard about and read about have been ones where there’s been some real leadership from within the community and from the leaders and organisations that are obviously providing services and looking after their community interests
I believe the inquiry is a good opportunity to examine what policy approaches have worked or haven’t worked at combating alcohol abuse in Indigenous communities
Justin Mohamed NACCHO chair speaking on World News Radio
Indigenous organisations have called for effective community consultation as the federal government launches a new inquiry into alcohol consumption in Indigenous communities.
The parliamentary inquiry was initially intended to look at alcohol-related violence across the country but has now been narrowed to deal specifically with Indigenous communities.
Some Indigenous health groups are hopeful the inquiry could lead to more effective strategies to tackle alcohol abuse, providing Indigenous communities are properly engaged as part of the process.
It will look at the patterns of supply and demand for alcohol in Indigenous communities and the incidence of alcohol-fuelled violence.
The inquiry will also examine how alcohol impacts upon unborn and newborn babies and what approaches have worked in other countries to combat alcohol abuse.
The Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister, Senator Nigel Scullion, has told NITV the government is not trying to single out Indigenous Australians as the only group that has problems with alcohol.
“This is about poverty, not ethnicity. But I acknowledge that there have always been and we have never really seen a break, particularly in reports of domestic violence, defence injuries, alcohol, deaths through alcohol…. through cars….and violence.”
Senator Scullion says the inquiry will also look at how socio-economic background could be linked to alcohol abuse.
The opposition Labor Party in the Northern Territory is critical of the inquiry, saying it’s “insulting” towards Indigenous Australians.
However, some Indigenous organisations believe it could be a step in the right direction towards tackling alcohol abuse.
Dr John Boffa is the medical officer with the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress and has worked in the Indigenous health field for over 20 years.
He has told NITV he believes an investigation into Indigenous alcohol abuse is long overdue.
“This is a useful inquiry. Alcohol problems are obviously very prevalent in Aboriginal communities. But I think if the inquiry is done well, it’s got the potential to provide some solutions that will address alcohol misuse, not just amidst Aboriginal people but amongst the broader population as well.”
That’s a view shared by the chairman of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation Justin Mohamed.
Mr Mohamed believes the inquiry is a good opportunity to examine what policy approaches have worked or haven’t worked at combating alcohol abuse in Indigenous communities.
Alcohol restrictions have been in place in remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, parts of the Kimberley region in Western Australia and in Cape York in Queensland for a number of years.
However Mr Mohamed believes it is critical to ensure that any scrutiny around these policies is underpinned by consultation and engagement with the Indigenous communities themselves.
“You need to look at the community. You need to engage the community in the initiatives and the things that can work have to be owned and obviously embraced and I think once you achieve that, the more successful things that I’ve seen, heard about and read about have been ones where there’s been some real leadership from within the community and from the leaders and organisations that are obviously providing services and looking after their community interests.”
Mr Mohamed says while previous government inquiries have looked at social problems like domestic violence in Indigenous communities, it is the first time an inquiry has focused specifically on alcohol abuse.
He says it is pleasing to see that the inquiry will look at what strategies have worked in Indigenous communities in other countries, saying Australia could learn a lot from that.
“Like Canada and New Zealand- obviously there would be things happening around alcohol and how they can manage that and make sure that the community is not affected at levels that are unacceptable. You would have to look internationally as well to make sure that you get a really good idea on what is out there and what does work and how that has worked over the years.”
“There are two separate but interdependent health systems, the hospital for the really sick, and Congress for primary health care, minimising the need for hospital admissions. In that way the primary health care of Congress, identifying patients’ health issues early, works hand in glove with the NT’s hospital system.
This “effective partnership” in health between the NT and Federal governments and the Aboriginal community controlled health sector could readily be copied in the housing and employment fields, leading to equally positive results.
Donna Ah Chee, (pictured above left with Pat Anderson ) CEO of the $38m a year Central Australian Aboriginal Congress,
“Investing in Aboriginal community controlled health makes economic $ense”
A meeting of some 60 non-government organisations (NGOs) yesterday heard about successful ways for services to cooperate, but also laid bare absurd failures of the current system.
The meeting was not open to the public but Donna Ah Chee, CEO of the $38m a year Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, says her organisation’s role in the health system showed how an NGO can complement – not duplicate – state providers.
The collaboration between the Territory’s health services, the Commonwealth Health Department and Aboriginal community controlled health services including Congress makes the NT the only jurisdiction on target to “close the gap” in life expectancy by 2031.
As a result of this successful partnership Ms Ah Chee says there had been about a 30% reduction in “all causes” of early death with the death rate declining from 2000 to 1400 people per 100,000,” says Ms Ah Chee.
The partnership on the ground means that services like Congress works on preventative health – keeping as many people as possible out of hospital – and if they have to go there, take care of them when they come out.
“There are two separate but interdependent health systems,” says Ms Ah Chee, “he hospital for the really sick, and Congress for primary health care, minimising the need for hospital admissions.”
In that way the primary health care of Congress, identifying patients’ health issues early, works hand in glove with the NT’s hospital system.
This “effective partnership” in health between the NT and Federal governments and the Aboriginal community controlled health sector could readily be copied in the housing and employment fields, leading to equally positive results.
Ms Ah Chee says the competitive tendering for government money is at the root of much of much dysfunction, causing “fragmentation of services, a multitude of services on the ground”.
She says in one small bush community there are about 17 providers just in the mental health field: “It’s bureaucracy gone mad. Everyone goes for the dollar. Better needs based planning is what’s urgently required.”
Ms Ah Chee says the meeting, called by the Department of the Chief Minister, has shown up the potentials and the problems of the system. It now remains to be seen what is done about them
The importance of our NACCHO member Aboriginal community controlled health services (ACCHS) is not fully recognised by governments.
The economic benefits of ACCHS has not been recognised at all.
We provide employment, income and a range of broader community benefits that mainstream health services and mainstream labour markets do not. ACCHS need more financial support from government, to provide not only quality health and wellbeing services to communities, but jobs, income and broader community economic benefits.
A good way of demonstrating how economically valuable ACCHS are is to showcase our success at a national summit.
THE head of the Prime Minister’s indigenous council, Warren Mundine, says he does not believe reducing levels of indigenous incarceration should become a formal Closing the Gap target, despite the large number of Aborigines in jails being high on his agenda.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience suicide at around twice the rate of the rest of the population. Aboriginal teenage men and women are up to 5.9 times more likely to take their own lives than non-Aboriginal people.
NACCHO Aboriginal Health: Estimated 400 suicides in our communities in last three years
This is a crisis affecting our young people. It’s critical real action is taken to urgently address the issue and it’was heartening to see the previous Federal Government taking steps to do that.
For any strategy to be effective, local, community-led healthcare needs to be at its core.
But so far we have not heard from this Government on the future of The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Advisory Group and the $17.8 million over four years in funding to reduce the incidence of suicidal and self-harming behaviour among Indigenous people.”
Justin Mohamed Chair NACCHO
Mr Mundine is this week in Parliament House meeting politicians in an effort to revitalise the bipartisan approach to indigenous affairs. Yesterday he met with Labor’s first indigenous MP, Nova Peris, who is also the deputy chair of the committee charged with coming up with a form of words to change the Constitution to recognise indigenous Australians.
But Mr Mundine has rejected a push by indigenous groups lobbying for a new justice target, arguing Closing the Gap targets are not the only way to deliver big change.
It comes as the Abbott government has said it was considering a target to reduce indigenous incarceration rates as a new Closing the Gap measure. Labor promised the new target during the election campaign, and the Coalition offered bipartisan support but has since been silent on the issue.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion said the government had not made a final decision but was committed to reducing incarceration rates.
“There is no doubt that we have to decrease the number of kids going into detention centres but I don’t want it to become about just numbers decreasing, it’s about how do we keep people out of the prison system and how do we work upon jobs and education programs – that’s the main focus.
“There is no doubt that incarceration rates need to be dealt with, but we need to be dealing with it in a very constructive way about decreasing crime and decreasing the number of people who are getting arrested and going to jail and how you overdo that is to break this cycle of crime.”
He said he did want “proper data” on detention and jail rates.
“I think people get too much fixation on the Closing the Gap targets, everyone knows I’m a supporter of decreasing incarceration rates but let’s just start doing it.”
He said he had become concerned that the bipartisan approach to Aboriginal affairs was breaking down.
“I want to start having the conversation with the opposition because we need to have the government and the opposition onside. The main issues on our agenda are schooling, jobs and education and health and incarceration and I want to tell them that we need to be working together and I am going to make this happen.”
Mr Mundine’s broader indigenous council has now backed proposals put forward by him, including job and training placements for indigenous teenagers in juvenile detention, first in Western Australia, then nationally.
Mr Mundine said the council’s focus must be on the missing and disengaged young people who were neither in school nor work.
Mr Mundine said a proposal by mining magnate Andrew Forrest to stop young indigenous people obtaining welfare had merit but there were scores of youth not receiving welfare because they relied on family and friends.
“There’s about 40,000 to 50,000 people not in the Centrelink system or in employment so what they’re doing is they’re living off their families,” Mr Mundine said.
“We’ve got to put in place processes to make sure they don’t go into criminal activity.”
The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs has announced an inquiry into the harmful use of alcohol in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
NACCHO Chair Justin Mohamed said the NACCHO secretariat will be working closely with its 150 members to make sure the role of Aboriginal Community Controlled health is recognised in any future long-term plans and recommendations as identified in NATSIHP the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health plan 2013-2023
The Chair of the Committee, Dr Sharman Stone, said that ‘The Committee is not singling out Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the only group that have problems with alcohol.
We know that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are more likely to abstain from alcohol than non- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. However we are concerned that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, who do consume alcohol, drink at riskier levels which has a greater impact on their health.’
Dr Stone said ‘while there is no doubt that alcohol abuse has a significant impact on families and communities right across Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are between four and five times more likely to be hospitalised, and between five and eight times more likely to die as a result of harmful alcohol use
‘Statistics such as these are of great concern. The Minister has supported the Committee’s determination to identify the social and other determinants of high risk alcohol consumption. We will also identify the strategies and programs which may have had some beneficial outcomes, comparing international experience. The prevalence and impacts of FASD and FAS will also be given a particular focus. We wish to hear from specialists and communities about what is working and why and submissions are now being called for.’
The Committee will inquiry into and report on:
Terms of Reference
The Committee will inquire into and report on the harmful use of alcohol in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, with a particular focus on:
• Patterns of supply of, and demand for alcohol in different Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, age groups and genders
• The social and economic determinants of harmful alcohol use across Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
• Trends and prevalence of alcohol related harm, including alcohol-fuelled violence and impacts on newborns e.g. Foetal Alcohol Syndrome and Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
• The implications of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome and Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders being declared disabilities
• Best practice treatments and support for minimising alcohol misuse and alcohol-related harm
• Best practice strategies to minimise alcohol misuse and alcohol-related harm
• Best practice identification to include international and domestic comparisons
Interested persons and organisations are invited to make submissions addressing the terms of reference by Thursday 17 April 2014 .
