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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 1 Hansard (17 February) . . Page.. 235 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

The Bringing them home report and recommendations 33a, 33b, 33c, 34a, 34b and 35 make specific recommendations promoting local indigenous healing and wellbeing perspectives. Without wanting to pre-empt the inquiry, I would like to broadly flag a few of the issues that I am sure will interest the committee, which have come to my notice through my work in the Assembly and through talking to people in the community. Obviously the committee will be examining the health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the ACT, including all the health risk factors: Substance misuse, life expectancy, suicide rates and infant mortality and morbidity rates. This is very important basic research, which will inform the rest of the inquiry and the inquiry recommendations in identifying priority areas for funding and program development.

Related to this is the extent to which broader social and cultural factors, such as educational and employment opportunities, influence Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. The Education Committee, which I chair, is looking at issues concerning how we can support students who are at risk of not completing their education. The issue of the indigenous community and its children will be part of our inquiry, so I am really pleased that we will be able to link with the Health and Community Care Committee on that particular aspect of our concerns. Currently the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs is conducting an inquiry into indigenous health that includes in its terms of reference these broad issues, so this obviously also presents an opportunity for some communication.

I am sure that the committee also will be interested in looking at the issues of the appropriateness and effectiveness of mainstream health services for delivery of health services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the ACT. Given the hospital separation rates for indigenous people in the ACT and the high death rate of Aboriginal women, this is an issue that needs careful scrutiny. Questions should be asked that include: Is mainstreaming working? Is the placement of isolated Aboriginal health workers in the mainstream health system working? Do they need more support? Should mainstream services develop more culturally appropriate, comprehensive programs? What cross-cultural training and education on the health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is provided within the health system to ensure that doctors and all other health workers deliver services to them in a culturally appropriate way? And what are the barriers to access to mainstream health services in the ACT for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people? All these are obviously very important questions.

I hope that it will be interesting for the committee to look at the various models for comprehensive primary health care service delivery for ATSI people, which are culturally appropriate and provided within a community-controlled setting. It is obviously a strong debate in Australia at this present time and I am looking forward to seeing the committee's work on that issue. It was raised within the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, and within the recommendations of the Bringing them home inquiry, and it is a debate we need to have.

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