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Key Messages from the Close the Gap – Making It Happen Workshop, 24-25 June 2010

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Key Messages from the Close the Gap – Making It Happen Workshop, 24-25 June 2010 Campaign for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality by 2030 Key messages from the Close the Gap – Making It Happen Workshop, 24-25 June 2010 Since 2006, the Close the Gap Campaign has worked to close the health and life expectancy gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians within a generation. Inside this guide, you’ll find information about the Close Wayne Quilliam/OxfamAUS Wayne the Gap Campaign as well as key messages from the Close the Gap – Making It Happen Workshop, 24–25 June 2010, which the campaign convened to explore issues around planning for achieving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality. Key messages include: The Workshop reaffirmed the Close the Gap Statement of Intent as a framework for achieving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality within a generation (by 2030). The workshop called for: • The Prime Minister to lead and drive the national effort to achieve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality within a generation from within the Australian Government… • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their representatives to lead in health planning and implementation processes within the context of partnership arrangements. • A planning process for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality that is efficient and does not absorb unnecessary time or resources. • The National Health and Hospitals Network to prioritise the effort to achieve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality within a generation. The complete key messages are set out within this guide. The Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee are The Close the Gap campaign for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality Over the last 50-years the health of non-Indigenous The Close the Gap Campaign comprises Australia’s peak Australians has improved significantly due to major Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander and non- Indigenous advances in medical care and rising prosperity. health bodies, NGOs and human rights organisations Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, (see back page). They propose a rights based solution however, have not shared in the same benefits. to this problem that is embodied in the Close the Gap Statement of Intent reproduced on the opposite page. The current 10 to 17-year life expectation gap is not a ‘normal’ state of events. It is the result of decades of In March 2008, then Prime Minister Rudd, the Minister neglect. The main causes of health inequality are well- for Health and Ageing, the Minister for Families, known and preventable. Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, and the federal Opposition Leader signed this document, A particular problem is that Aboriginal and Torres Strait and since then have almost all the state and territory level Islander peoples don’t have the same opportunities to governments and opposition parties of Australia. Uniquely, visit health services as other Australians. As a result, the Statement of Intent embodies a national consensus on illnesses that could be prevented become chronic how to bring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health problems. The single biggest killer of Aboriginal and inequality to an end within one generation (by 2030). Torres Strait Islanders today is preventable – heart disease. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ relative lack of access to healthy water, housing and food and, more broadly, social determinants such as lower income and access to education all contribute to poorer health outcomes. The fact that indigenous Australian life expectancy is 10 years less than for other Australians is a cause of great Progress has been slow, however, in turning these concern ... We want to help commitments into action particularly in relation to provide a level playing field health planning and partnership. The Close the Gap for indigenous Australians – Making It Happen Workshop was held on 24–25 June at Old Parliament House in Canberra to provide ... who face higher risks directions to Australian governments to this end. of diabetes, heart disease, Representatives from the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Sector, the mainstream health services cancer and kidney failure. as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health NRL CEO, David Gallop experts and other stakeholders attended, as did senior representatives from key departments in the Australian Government and representatives from the majority of the state and territory governments. The key messages from the workshop are set out inside this document. STATEMENT OF INTENT Workshop outcomes and key messages The workshop reaffirmed the Close the Gap Statement • Partnership opportunities through the structure of the of Intent as a framework for achieving Aboriginal National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples. and Torres Strait Islander health equality within a • That partnership should be considered as an generation (by 2030). efficiency measure: helping to maximise the health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from the resources available. Leadership within the Australian The workshop called for a partnership framework Government and COAG agreement between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander The workshop called for the Prime Minister to lead and peoples and their representatives and Australian drive the national effort to achieve Aboriginal and Torres governments to underpin the national effort to achieve Strait Islander health equality within a generation from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality within the Australian Government, and in particular to within a generation. enable: • The intergovernmental and intersectoral cooperation The development of a plan for vital to a national effort to achieve Aboriginal Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Torres Strait Islander health equality within a health equality within a generation generation. The workshop noted that within an overall national • The public sector to work in real and effective effort, several layers and dimensions of health and health- partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander related planning are needed to address all the major peoples and their representatives. social and cultural determinants of health inequality. This includes the Reconciliation process. A partnership framework agreement The workshop called for: The workshop noted: • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and • Longstanding, strong multilateral partnerships within their representatives to lead in health planning and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector implementation processes within the context of at the state and territory-level that provide models partnership arrangements. for moving forward in relation to partnership at the Aunty Ruth Bell welcomes the delegates to country, Members’ Dining Room, national level. Museum of Australian Democracy, Old Parliament House, Canberra. Workshop outcomes and key messages • A planning process for Aboriginal and Torres Strait • The implementation of a plan is, in practice, a more Islander health equality that is efficient and does not important step than planning. Aboriginal and Torres absorb unnecessary time or resources. Strait Islander leadership and partnership at this • A plan that is ‘owned’ by both Aboriginal and Torres stage is vital. Strait Islander peoples and their representatives • That monitoring, evaluation and review processes and Australian governments. A sense of plan should be included in a plan. ‘ownership’ on both sides was important to the plan’s The workshop called for: implementation. This should be factored into the process of developing a plan. • The negative impact of racism and the failure to respect Aboriginal and Strait Islander peoples’ human Content of a plan to achieve Aboriginal rights on their health be addressed in a plan (and, and Torres Strait Islander health more broadly, a national effort) to achieve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality within a equality within a generation generation. The workshop noted: • The development of a capacity building plan for the • The content of the National Aboriginal Health Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Sector as a Strategy (1989) and the National Strategic Framework part of a plan to achieve Aboriginal and Torres Strait for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Islander health equality within a generation. This (2003–2013) that provides a starting point for the includes: development of a plan. – the introduction of a per capita funding model • The Close the Gap National Indigenous Health (based on a robust evaluation of the relative Equality Targets that provide a starting point for amounts of per capita Indigenous and non- the agreement of the targets and sub-targets to be Indigenous government health spending occurring) included in a plan. and, • Empowerment will be a vital contributor to Aboriginal – a streamlining of funding arrangements for these and Torres Strait Islander health equality. Any policy services. or program under the plan should be assessed as to how it will increase the ability of Aboriginal and Mr Ian Thorpe, Patron of the Close the Gap Campaign, welcomes the delegates at Torres Strait Islander individuals, families and the opening session. Ms Catherine Freeman, also Patron of the Campaign, was in communities to take control of their own lives. attendance. The Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee thanks the Australian General Practice Network,
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