At the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting on 29 November, Australia’s state and federal heads announced they will invest significant new funds into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health.

The federal government will contribute $806 million and the states will collectively contribute $772 million over the next four years. This is the biggest single injection of Indigenous health spending in decades.

"This … is a down payment on the significant investment needed by both levels of government to close the unacceptable gap in health and other outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.” - COAG communiqué

COAG has made a real commitment towards closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians by committing funding to back up the promises they made earlier in the year.

Congratulations to everybody who has participated in the Close The Gap campaign – and its forerunner, ANTaR's Healing Hands campaign. Collectively we have achieved this outstanding result.

Secret 7 off the hook (for now)

Broadly speaking, the funding announced by COAG significantly delivers on what ANTaR and the rest of the Close The Gap coalition has recently been lobbying for. In this respect, our Secret 7 campaign – focused on the Federal Government's Expenditure Review Committee – has been a success.

However, only four years of funding has been committed towards a 20 year generational task. We can let the Secret 7 off the hook for now, but our long-term work continues.

Still needed: a comprehensive plan to tackle disadvantage

In health terms, the funding is well-targeted to chronic disease management and prevention, and improved access to primary health care and health professionals for Indigenous Australians. For the spending to have maximum impact, a National Action Plan is required and we would like to see more of the increased funding being spent on Aboriginal community controlled health services.

However … we have concerns about COAG’s broader approach. While COAG has acknowledged that closing the gap on Indigenous disadvantage cannot be solved by health measures alone, it has yet to develop a comprehensive plan to address these other important factors – the social determinants of health – that impact on the health and wellbeing of Indigenous people. These include housing, education, employment and community services, the impacts of racism and exclusion, and having control over life circumstances, cultural identity and related rights.

Most importantly, COAG has not yet engaged with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in developing and implementing their initiatives. We’d like to see both federal and state governments continue to build on COAG’s investment, but in true partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

This requires that the Prime Minister enacts his government's commitment, made as part of the National Apology to Australia's Indigenous Peoples, to “embrace a new partnership between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians”.

Next steps

There are five federal Ministers responsible for the key social determinates of health. They have the resources and power to guide COAG in a direction that would be most effective in closing the gap on Indigenous disadvantage:

• Kevin Rudd (Prime Minister),
• Nicola Roxon (Minister for Health and Ageing),
• Jenny Macklin (Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs),
• Julia Gillard (Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Social Inclusion), and
• Joe Ludwig (Minister for Human Services).

COAG has announced it will hold a special closing the gap meeting sometime in 2009. We will be lobbying the five ministers above in the lead-up to the meeting. We will also be contacting each Premier and their Ministers in relation to their approach in implementing the funding and expanding their commitments to the Close The Gap campaign targets.

Additionally, we will be monitoring progress and keeping you up-to-date with developments.

Join ANTaR in influencing these key politicians and COAG in 2009. We need your support both as donors (so we can continue this work) and as activists (so we can apply pressure on the key players).

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