Media Release
25 May 2007
ANF calls for Indigenous health equality on referendum’s 40th anniversary
The Australian Nursing Federation is calling for action to close the gap between the health of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians on the 40th anniversary of the 1967 referendum.
In 1967, more than 90% of eligible Australians voted to count Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in the national population census and to give the Commonwealth Government power to make specific laws in respect of Indigenous people.
ANF Federal Secretary Jill Iliffe said it was a matter of deep national shame that, forty years on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are dying 17 years earlier than other Australians and Indigenous infant and child mortality rates are a national disgrace.
“None of those who voted at the referendum could have imagined that in 2007 Indigenous Australians would have such poor health outcomes. A child born today in Bangladesh can expect to live longer than an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person. This is a national tragedy,” Ms Iliffe said.
The ANF is calling on all Australians to act to resurrect the spirit of reconciliation that was responsible for the 1967 vote and to insist our governments act to achieve health equality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian within a generation.
“It is inconceivable that a country as wealthy as Australia cannot solve a health crisis affecting less than 3% of its population. Our budgets are in surplus. It can be achieved. All that is required is political will,” Ms Iliffe said.
The ANF supports the work being done by Oxfam, HREOC and NACCHO in their ‘Close the Gap’ campaign and encourages all Australians to do the same. The ANF also supports the work of the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people choosing nursing as a career.
The ANF, representing 150,000 members, is the professional and industrial voice for nurses in
Media inquiries
Jill Iliffe, Federal Secretary 0419 576 590
Ged Kearney, Assistant Federal Secretary, 0417 053 322