AMA proposes annual public report card on Aboriginal health

A series of draft policy motions were tabled - to be voted on tomorrow - including:

Increasing funding for Indigenous health by $245m per year phased in over five years

Minimum benchmarks for health service delivery

A public report card, and

A call for the Federal Government to 'untangle the wires' in Indigenous health.

"There is without question a crisis in indigenous health. Australia has fallen way behind the rest of the world - both developed nations and developing nations - in its health outcomes for its indigenous people. This is a disgrace. It's something that Australia should be ashamed of and, in fact, one of the questions from the floor today was how do we maintain the shame.

"There are a number of ways that the AMA intends to do that. In part we will be looking to produce an annual public report card on Indigenous health. We will be calling for more funding and we will be ensuring that we do everything we can to untangle the wires on indigenous health," Dr Phelps said.

Speaking at the conference, Chairman of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO), Mr Puggy Hunter, said commitment was needed at all levels of government.

"You just need to read the Budget. That tells you how committed things are in Australia. There's a lot of talk - but no funding to back it up. I've gotta go back to my mob and tell them, tough, here we go again," he said.

Commenting on National Sorry Day today, Mr Hunter said: "Sorry day is most of our life. Just last week in my area alone (the Kimberleys) we lost two young fellows to suicide. That just destroys the whole structure of our community. We're trying to handle that, talk to Government, not get angry and move ahead. It's pretty hard, I tell you," he said.

Head of the James Cook University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Professor Ian Ring, said it was untenable national policy to be spending least on the group of people who had the poorest health outcomes.

Also speaking at the conference, Indigenous Doctors Association spokesperson, Dr Ngiare Brown, said: "I believe Australia has the knowledge, the resources and the potential to effect great change in a very short period of time. What we need is broad, national commitment from our political leaders."

The AMA National Conference 2001 is being held from 25-27 May at the Sheraton Towers Southgate in Melbourne.

CONTACT: John Flannery (02) 6270 5477 (0419) 494 761

Sarah Bucknell (02) 6270 5472 (0419) 440 076