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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (29 June) . . Page.. 2285 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

vast discrepancies between standards of indigenous and non-indigenous health can be redressed with a mere $100,000. The Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service stated earlier this week that there is a 28-year discrepancy between the life expectancy of indigenous and non-indigenous Canberrans.

We do need, in this affluent town in which we live, to ponder on some of the indigenous health statistics that are continually repeated. Here in Canberra we have the same appalling health discrepancies existing between indigenous and non-indigenous Canberrans, and the most stark of those, of course, is that health standard relating to life expectancy. It is sobering always to reflect, if one goes to just that health indicator, life expectancy, that here in Canberra, the nation's capital, this town that we are all so proud to call home, the discrepancy between the average life expectancy of an indigenous person is 28 years less than that of a non-indigenous person. These are Canberra statistics. This is our home. This is our town-a town in which the difference between the life expectancy of an Aboriginal person and a non-Aboriginal person is 28 years. We are no different from the rest of the nation in the extent to which we deal with the health needs of indigenous people in this community. They are as woefully met here as they are in places around the nation. The $100,000 allocated for an indigenous health initiative is a drop in the ocean in terms of addressing the extent of the unmet need of the indigenous people in this town.

I think it is worth focusing on the issue of life expectancy, but there is a range of other indicators that really are a cause for enormous concern. One of those that are changing so dramatically at the moment, and perhaps most dramatically in terms of the speed of change within the indigenous community, is the extent to which young indigenous Canberrans are becoming subject to heroin addiction and heroin use. The fastest uptake by any group within the community of heroin and subsequent heroin addiction is amongst young indigenous men. I spoke with an indigenous family within the last two weeks who advised me of five children under the age of 25 in the one family, each of whom, along with their parents, are addicts to heroin and other substances.

MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Do you require a further extension of time?

MR STANHOPE: I do, thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. We have a major issue here-

Mr Moore: The normal thing is to give him his two turns at the clause, but the extension is granted.

MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: This is an extraordinarily flexible approach to standing orders.

Mr Moore: Leave is granted.

MR STANHOPE: I beg your pardon, Mr Moore. I must say that I was not focusing on that convention. I am happy to treat this as the second-

Mr Moore: Just keep going. It does not matter how you do it. We will give you leave.

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