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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 8 Hansard (8 August) . . Page.. 2592 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

there are gaps that needed to be filled-not always, because the drug problem was a stand-out issue.

As we went deeper, much of what we heard pointed to a crisis of spirit in the Aboriginal community, and that is so much a background to health problems. Of course, that is inevitable. Poor health outcomes are tied in with dispossession and social and economic disadvantage. It is inevitable. If you are deprived, depressed, if you have been trodden on or ignored and you are treated in all sorts of undesirable ways, concern about your personal health does not rate very highly. Whereas, if you are in comfortable circumstances, you are confident about yourself and you see a bright future for yourself, you are very careful to look after your health. You have got every reason to do so.

There is a long discussion, and I would encourage you to read it, focused on the need to attend to the spirit of our indigenous population. Of course, the report does not cover every indigenous person in the ACT, and we all know that many of them are managing very well, thank you. But as a whole the community is not.

On this question of morale, of spirit, the committee came to the view that reconciliation was an important issue. I quote paragraph 3.21 of the report:

The committee sees immense value in the process of reconciliation, not only in terms of bridging the gap between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians but also in bringing about real improvements in health outcomes.

There is a whole range of issues confronting the Australian community concerning its indigenous population, and the issue of reconciliation is probably at the top of that list.

We heard-on a quite different aspect, or perhaps it is not so different-from the indigenous community that mainstream services are often inappropriate and ineffective in dealing with health issues. We heard that the uniqueness of the indigenous cultures and the lack of awareness in mainstream services of those cultures discourage indigenous people from seeking or continuing with health care. We had many examples given to us, and people pointed to many negative experiences they had had.

Over many years in the ACT, as elsewhere, strong efforts have been made to understand the cultural differences, not just of indigenous people but of people who have recently come to Australia from other countries. I know that there are programs under way. Indeed, some of the committee members were asked to attend one of those programs, and we had a day in one of our rooms here about it. We know that there are programs in place, but the report points out that there is a great deal yet to do to ensure that indigenous people are comfortable with mainstream services, whether they are public, in hospitals and the like, or private.

It was clear to us, as it is to the whole community, that use of illicit drugs is a major problem among young people in the Aboriginal community. The committee spent some time dealing with that but, rather than go into detail at the moment, I would encourage you to read the report. It presents the single most difficult, immediate and urgent problem that needs to be attended to, and extra support, extra workers and concerted action are needed to prevent that problem getting any worse and to try to improve the situation.

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