Page 2127 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 2 August 2016
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The latest available closing the gap data from 2013-14 has delivered some statistically significant and encouragingly positive outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the ACT.
In 2014, the ACT met the progress points on the trajectories to halving the gap in all years in reading and numeracy except for year 7 reading. 2013-14 results showed significant progress for young adult education and attainment of qualifications for the ACT. Between 2008 and 2012-13, the gap for 20-year-olds to 24-year-olds who had attained year 12 or equivalent in the ACT decreased by an impressive 26.1 percentage points. Whilst there were apparent improvements for year 12 attainment nationally, the ACT was the only jurisdiction where the change in the gap for year 12 attainment was statistically significant.
Similarly, for employment outcomes, 2012-13 data showed that the ACT was the only jurisdiction which was on track to closing the employment to population ratio gap.
Rates of smoking, considered to be the leading risk for disease and death for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, continued to fall. From 2008 to 2012, the smoking rate in the ACT reduced by two percentage points, from 29.8 per cent down to 27.6 per cent. Here again, the ACT has shown great gains in comparison to other jurisdictions. Whilst the national gap for smoking rates was 26.1 percentage points in 2012-13, the ACT gap was the lowest of all jurisdictions, at a 15.0 percentage point gap.
These national statistics tell us some of the story, but there is more to be found in other ACT population and administrative data and information collected in the closing the gap report which I table here today, information which underlines that there is still much we need to do to overcome the legacy of past policies, particularly in relation to chronic ill health and the overrepresentation of children in statutory care and young people and adults in the justice systems.
According to the ACT Chief Health Officer’s report for 2014, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had significantly more potentially preventable hospital admissions, at 33.7 per thousand, than other ACT counterparts, at 17.4 per thousand. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were hospitalised at almost twice the rate for circulatory diseases and around four times the rate for chronic kidney diseases and diabetes as compared to the rates for other ACT residents. Young pregnant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women still had high smoking rates: 68 per cent for those aged less than 20 years and 59 per cent for those aged 20 to 24 years.
In the ACT child protection system, around one-quarter of the children and young people in care are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
The Uniting children and families program, a prevention and reunification service for vulnerable families in the ACT with children in care or at risk of entering care, collaborates with Uniting’s Aboriginal development unit, Jaanimili, to provide specialist support to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families are prioritised and receive a culturally proficient service. The program employs five
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