PROGRESS ON improving Aboriginal living standards is still too slow, Australia’s prime minister Kevin Rudd said yesterday.
In his second annual report on the gap between black and white Australia, Mr Rudd said the fact that indigenous children under five were twice as likely to die as non-indigenous children was a “shameful statistic”.
“Generations of indigenous disadvantage cannot be turned around overnight,” he said. “We know it will need unprecedented effort by all parts of the Australian community.”
The government has pledged to increase funding for support services to Aboriginal mothers and babies by Au$9 million (€5.8 million) to help close what Mr Rudd called a “yawning gap” in health.
He told parliament there were some positive signs for indigenous Australians. This includes improvements in education and employment. The number of Aborigines in work has risen to 53.8 per cent from 48 per cent in 2002, while the number of those completing high school rose from 30.7 per cent in 1995 to 46.5 per cent in 2008. Seventeen new school-based sports academies will be opened across Australia to encourage indigenous children to finish school.
New and more reliable data has shown that the life expectancy gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians is lower than previously thought, Mr Rudd said.
It is now believed that the gap is 11.5 years for men and 9.7 for women, with men living on average to 67 years and women 73 years. “This is less than the 17-year gap that we thought existed a year ago,” he added. “This is good news but it is the result of having more reliable data rather than the result of having any real improvement on the ground.
“There’s evidence to suggest that some progress may have been made but the progress is clearly too slow.”
Treatable chronic diseases such as insulin-resistant diabetes, respiratory disease, heart disease and liver disease caused by alcoholism account for two-thirds of premature Aboriginal deaths.
Mr Rudd said that although the government had an important role to play in “restoring social norms”, Aborigines had to take greater individual responsibility.