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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 1 Hansard (17 February) . . Page.. 237 ..

MR MOORE (Minister for Health and Community Care) (11.23): Mr Speaker, the Assembly is, indeed, charging this committee with the most difficult task imaginable, as I mentioned to the house the other day. In speaking to health officials in Alberta who are dealing with indigenous populations there, I discovered that they also face very similar problems and are exploring options for resolving them. I hear Ms Tucker identifying a range of options. In fact, given Ms Tucker's speech, which basically attempts to provide the solutions, perhaps the committee can effectively adopt those.

But I think Ms Tucker knows, just as we know, that the solutions are very difficult to find and must be worked out, as she said, with Aboriginal people. I think that what we need to do is ensure that we can work, not only with Aboriginal people, but also across government, developing an intersectoral approach that will deal with the range of issues which have been raised by both Ms Tucker and Mr Wood. One thing I find a little bit disturbing - it is a minor thing in light of the issue - is that the catalyst for this was that the State of the Territory Report was missing some information.

Well, I could also say that about Ms Tucker's speech, or about any publication that is missing information. It is interesting to argue that information is not put into a report, when you are working in a consistent way across the whole of the Territory and looking at ABS statistics. But, that aside, there is no doubt that this is an issue of great interest. It is of interest to the Department of Health, and it is of special interest to me when trying to resolve it. We already have, in the draft budget, an extra health worker. That is a small issue, but it does show that we are putting in an effort.

I think it is also important to note the things that we are doing: where we work for the Commonwealth, and where we constantly work to try to improve the health of Aboriginal people. We have health workers within the hospital who are seeking to ensure that the way people are treated is culturally appropriate. It seems to me, Mr Speaker, that no matter what we do - I hate to sound pessimistic - we are not going to resolve the problems. What we can do - and in this we can be optimistic - is move one step closer. Every single step we take to improve the plight of Aboriginal people in terms of their health is incredibly important.

I look forward to the committee watching the process with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Forum, as we develop their regional health plan - it is their health plan and it should be their health plan. We should have a greater input into it. It should also be the case that the Assembly, through its committee, can have the opportunity to have input. More importantly, I think, the committee should monitor our processes and ensure that they are right, and that we are doing these things in the most effective way.

I would also like to say, Mr Speaker, that, where people do have ideas about this, where they can be involved, and where they can enhance the way we go about improving the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, they should come to us, because we are open-minded. We do know that, for indigenous people - not just in the ACT, but across Australia and across the world - when we look at the measures of morbidity and mortality, they invariably have much greater health problems than the rest of the population. It is something about which we are embarrassed and on which we have to

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