❓ CLOSING THE GAP FUNDING 317. Mr I.C. BLAYNEY to the Minister for Health: I understand the Minister for Health attended an Aboriginal health conference in Fremantle yesterday. Can the Minister for Heal
AnsweredQoN 317Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
CLOSING THE GAP FUNDING
317. Mr I.C. BLAYNEY to the Minister for Health:
I understand the Minister for Health attended an Aboriginal
health conference in Fremantle yesterday. Can the Minister for Health please
inform the house what announcements might have been made regarding the
replacement of Closing the Gap funding?
317. Mr I.C. BLAYNEY to the Minister for Health:
I understand the Minister for Health attended an Aboriginal
health conference in Fremantle yesterday. Can the Minister for Health please
inform the house what announcements might have been made regarding the
replacement of Closing the Gap funding?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question. Of course, Geraldton is
a critical component of Closing the Gap funding, particularly with Sandy Davies
up there, who is closely integrated with the Geraldton Regional Aboriginal
Medical Service, now working within government in helping to manage this
program, which is one of the most successful, if not the most successful, Closing
the Gap programs in Australia. In fact, I think Western Australia is the only
state that has committed to ongoing funding of this program. It was started
under the Council of Australian Governments agreements for closing the gap,
when we as a state put up something like $114 million. Last year we added
another $30-odd million, so our funding is well over $140 million for closing
the gap in Indigenous health in this state. We are coming to the end of the
financial year, so there was some concern amongst those Aboriginal people who
are largely employed doing this program about its continuation. We are
combining the Closing the Gap program with the Indigenous early childhood
development program and calling it Footprints to Better Health. In doing that,
we are putting funding of $32.3 million towards keeping that program going.
This program has been enormously successful. All members have
to do is look through the details of the program to see the sorts of things
being done and the number of Aboriginal people who are being seen throughout
the length and breadth of Australia, particularly dealing with some of the
critical elements of health that lead to the long gap between Aboriginal life
expectancy and non-Aboriginal life expectancy. The big difference between our
program and the programs of the other states is that we are operating the
program in conjunction with Aboriginal people, based on directions that have
been given to us by Aboriginal people. In this state, instead of the state
government putting in the funds, as happened in the other states, and trying to
do everything itself, we have done it in partnership with Aboriginal medical
services. Those medical services were established to look after Aboriginal
communities, and they have been contracted to the state government to manage,
so the total amount of work is done under what is about a 50–50
partnership. Well over 100 Aboriginal people are employed across the state to
provide the details of the program.
Tony Abbott said some time ago in Canberra that, sadly, the
Closing the Gap program had not been successful in closing the gap on an
Australia-wide basis. I can say that in Western Australia it has been
successful, and on just about every measure the gap in life expectancy between
Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people is closing. Only one area stands
out in which that is not the case, and that is Aboriginal suicides. The
Minister for Mental Health still has a lot of work to do to improve outcomes in
that area. However, overall, it is a fantastic program. We announced yesterday
that this funding will be in the budget announcements today. An amount of $30.3
million will be in the budget, and $2 million from other programs that have
expired will be pushed across to that program, making it a total of $32.3 million.
a critical component of Closing the Gap funding, particularly with Sandy Davies
up there, who is closely integrated with the Geraldton Regional Aboriginal
Medical Service, now working within government in helping to manage this
program, which is one of the most successful, if not the most successful, Closing
the Gap programs in Australia. In fact, I think Western Australia is the only
state that has committed to ongoing funding of this program. It was started
under the Council of Australian Governments agreements for closing the gap,
when we as a state put up something like $114 million. Last year we added
another $30-odd million, so our funding is well over $140 million for closing
the gap in Indigenous health in this state. We are coming to the end of the
financial year, so there was some concern amongst those Aboriginal people who
are largely employed doing this program about its continuation. We are
combining the Closing the Gap program with the Indigenous early childhood
development program and calling it Footprints to Better Health. In doing that,
we are putting funding of $32.3 million towards keeping that program going.
This program has been enormously successful. All members have
to do is look through the details of the program to see the sorts of things
being done and the number of Aboriginal people who are being seen throughout
the length and breadth of Australia, particularly dealing with some of the
critical elements of health that lead to the long gap between Aboriginal life
expectancy and non-Aboriginal life expectancy. The big difference between our
program and the programs of the other states is that we are operating the
program in conjunction with Aboriginal people, based on directions that have
been given to us by Aboriginal people. In this state, instead of the state
government putting in the funds, as happened in the other states, and trying to
do everything itself, we have done it in partnership with Aboriginal medical
services. Those medical services were established to look after Aboriginal
communities, and they have been contracted to the state government to manage,
so the total amount of work is done under what is about a 50–50
partnership. Well over 100 Aboriginal people are employed across the state to
provide the details of the program.
Tony Abbott said some time ago in Canberra that, sadly, the
Closing the Gap program had not been successful in closing the gap on an
Australia-wide basis. I can say that in Western Australia it has been
successful, and on just about every measure the gap in life expectancy between
Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people is closing. Only one area stands
out in which that is not the case, and that is Aboriginal suicides. The
Minister for Mental Health still has a lot of work to do to improve outcomes in
that area. However, overall, it is a fantastic program. We announced yesterday
that this funding will be in the budget announcements today. An amount of $30.3
million will be in the budget, and $2 million from other programs that have
expired will be pushed across to that program, making it a total of $32.3 million.
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