Fed: Calls for Aboriginal health funding need to be specific

AAP General News (Australia)
04-27-2000
Fed: Calls for Aboriginal health funding need to be specific

By Elizabeth Gosch

CANBERRA, April 27 AAP - Peak medical groups calling for extra funding for Aboriginal
health had to pinpoint where the money was needed, federal Health Minister Michael Wooldridge
said today.

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) and the National Aboriginal Community Control
Health Organisation (NACCHO) have joined forces to destroy myths surrounding the issue
and provide a coordinated front to seek increased funding.

However, a spokeswoman for Dr Wooldridge said instead of calling for more money the
AMA and other groups needed to sit down and consider where it was needed.

"The minister has actually fought for and approved some of the biggest increases in
indigenous health (funding) this century," the spokeswoman said.

"He has said in many interviews, if you tell me where the gaps are I'll go and spend
the money, I will go and fight for the extra money in cabinet.

"But it is not appropriate for the minister to go into cabinet and say, I want all
this extra money without actually knowing where it is going to."

The alliance plans to seek needs-based funding for Aboriginal health in line with the
recommendations of the Deeble Report.

Australian National University academic Professor John Deeble's report, commissioned
by the AMA, found that virtually the same amount of money was spent on Aboriginal health
as on other Australians in the same income category.

But when poor health and higher death rates, a lack of discretionary spending on health
and the cost of delivering health services to rural and remote regions were taken into
account, Professor Deeble said there was a spending shortfall of at least $245 million
a year.

The groups will also focus on exploding the myths that the problem of Aboriginal health
was too hard to fix and that money spent on it was wasted.

"Evidence from New Zealand, Canada and the United States show that substantial improvements
in life expectancy of Aboriginal people can be achieved in just two or three short decades,"

they said.

"The Maori death rate declined by 44 per cent between 1974 and 1994 and the United
States Aboriginal rate by 30 per cent in the same period.

"In contrast, there was no significant reduction in the death rate for Aboriginal Australians
between 1985 and 1995."

NACCHO chairman Puggy (Puggy) Hunter said the new alliance would bring greater coordination
to the battle to improve Aboriginal health.

"Unfortunately in today's society, having a just cause - even one as strongly deserving
as Aboriginal health - doesn't secure a fair share of resources," Mr Hunter said.

"A stronger, better-coordinated and more sophisticated approach to lobbying presents
a way forward."

AAP eg/mfh/jtb/br

KEYWORD: INDIGENOUS HEALTH NIGHTLEAD

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