Interview - Dr Kerryn Phelps, AMA President, with Paul Wiles, 8KIN FM CAAMA Radio, Alice Springs

PHELPS: Good morning.

WILES: How are you?

PHELPS: Very well, thankyou.

WILES: That's good.

PHELPS: All the better for a couple of days in the Northern Territory.

WILES: That's good. It must be nice to get out of the big smoke every now and again.

PHELPS: Yes. Yes. Into the heat of the middle of the Northern Territory. It was quite a day yesterday. Over 40 degrees in Katherine.

WILES: Yeah. It can come as a bit of a shock, even to those of us who live here. When the summer comes it comes pretty quick, and it can come with a bit of a vengeance, but something that we have to live with up here in the Territory.

But Kerryn, part of your visit while you're in the Territory - you've obviously been travelling round looking at Indigenous health organisations, now we spoke on Monday to the Prime Minister, and he was talking about the health status of Indigenous Australians is one area that all Australians will recognise needs to be addressed.

PHELPS: Yes.

WILES: Now, as President of the AMA, what can we be doing to help address the health issues of Indigenous peoples?

PHELPS: Well, I think it needs to be one of the highest priority health areas for this country. We have a group of people who, because of their poor health, are the most disadvantaged in our country, and until we address that issue then there will not be any social justice.

To think that there is a group of Australians who can only expect to live 55 years at the most in general terms, that there is a vastly increased level of infant mortality, that the burden of disease of things like renal disease and heart disease - diabetes - is so much greater for people in that population, and the disruption that that causes to their lives and to their families is something that I think needs to be a very great priority for us.

WILES: Kerryn, the health status of Indigenous Australians is something that's been recognised for some time now, but we're really not bringing it down to the levels - acceptable levels right across the board.

PHELPS: No, that's right, and I don't think we've made any - if any - any advances in Australia in the last three decades, and, you know, we need to increase the funding that's going into things like infrastructure, housing, education, and, of course, into the health services themselves.

But looking at environments - environmental issues - things like making sure that there's adequate garbage removals, that there's adequate sanitation, that their food supplies are able to get to the communities, that their airstrips are properly maintained when they're cut off in the wet seasons - these are issues that very heavily impact on survival.

WILES: Kerryn, just - we're not having a shot of people who live in the cities, but I mean, you've seen first hand the appalling conditions that many of these people live in on a daily basis. Do you think that that message is being promoted - obviously not by the Government - but how do we get people, the general person living in the cities and in the regional - in the more built up areas, rather, to come to terms with - we have a very rich part of the community that is generally very well serviced, as compared to a very small part of the population that's very under-serviced.

PHELPS: You're quite right. And it's very difficult to get that message through. I don't think the majority of people living in cities have the first clue what's going on in remote Australia and just how difficult life is for people who are living in these remote communities.

And I think if the vast majority of Australians did know - or have a better concept of what was actually going on - then they would gladly agree that their tax dollars needed to be spent in making life easier for these people and improving their health outcomes and their environments.

WILES: Well, it's perhaps not in the interests of the Government to promote that, but, you know, what can we be doing as a society? If it's not coming from Government?

PHELPS: Well, it has to come from Government, because - and I think the pressure has to come from the average Australian to say that it is not acceptable to us. It is not in the spirit of the Australian people to have a group of Australians so terribly disadvantaged living in such poverty and with so little in the way of resources.

And, you know, I see people around the Territory just doing the most amazing work with very little in the way of resources, and, you know, you just think what could be achieved if there was Government will and appropriate levels of Government funding to provide for them.

I mean, just yesterday I was in Nyarrin, and the school there has increased its enrolment from 82 to 146 students ranging from kindergarten through now to high school in the last 12 to 18 months. And they've got attendance rates of 85% to 90%.

Now I think that's a fantastic achievement and there is a wonderful morale around that happening, and it has the support of the community, and if we could see that repeated elsewhere in the Territory - if the funding was provided, if the staff were able to work in pleasant surroundings, then there would, I think, be much improvement in literacy rates, and therefore in health outcomes.

WILES: Well, as we said earlier, it's easy for people living in the Territory to be aware of these problems, and we keep hearing the good news stories coming through, but again the big overall picture is something that does need to be much more obvious to people living in the cities that - you know, there's a very small percentage of the population - I mean, Australia's a very rich country, and we have, you know, so much good things happening, it seems to be a catastrophe that such a small part of the population can't be helped and addressed.

PHELPS: You're absolutely right, and it is a case of out of sight out of mind, and the mainstream media in the cities does not pay much attention, if at all, to Indigenous health issues, and I think the more we can highlight this issue wherever it's possible then I think that, you know, as I said, the average Australian would not tolerate this situation happening in their back door. But it is happening in their backyard.

WILES: Kerryn, look, we'd like to thank you very much for sparing some time this morning. You know, thanks for coming up and having a chat with us on Karma. We have listeners right around the country. I'm sure they'll be happy to know your views on the state of Aboriginal health - Indigenous health right around the country.

It is something that we're constantly reminding the powers that be that things do have to be looked at, and probably the big message we're trying to get across is that Aboriginal people have to be listened to and from a grass roots level now we're seeing more and more Aboriginal people starting to take control of their own destiny, in a sense, and their own health outcomes.

PHELPS: Yes, I think it's a very important message, and the communities themselves - I attended a public meeting in Miniyeri yesterday, and we had a lot of people there bringing the same message and asking me to take that message back to Canberra - and that is that their health matters to them, and that their health should matter to every Australian. So the more that we can do to raise consciousness of this very important social and health issue, the better.

WILES: Kerryn Phelps, thanks very much for joining us this morning.

PHELPS: Thankyou. Bye.

WILES: All the best. Cheers. And Dr Kerryn Phelps, the President of the Australian Medical Association joining us there. Paul Wiles, you're listening to Karma's Talk About on 8KIN FM.

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