Governments are failing to fulfil a pledge to work with Indigenous people instead of do things to them, the Closing the Gap steering committee has said in response to the lack of improvement in the lives of Indigenous Australians.
In an annual responsive report released on Thursday, the national campaign’s steering committee has taken state and federal governments to task over last month’s federal update that just one of seven Closing the Gap targets was on track.
The committee welcomed prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s 2016 declaration that it was time for governments to “do things with” Aboriginal people, not “do things to” Aboriginal people.
“And yet … across nearly every government funded program, initiative or portfolio responsibility we see the continuation of imposed, unengaged and often rushed service delivery,” it said.
“Since 2010, the Close the Gap campaign steering committee has made dozens of recommendations based on the expert knowledge and experience of its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and mainstream health organisation membership,” it said.
“The federal government has failed to listen or act adequately or appropriately … and we remain deeply concerned that government is yet to fully grasp the interconnectedness of the social and cultural determinants to health.
“We believe that the nation is at risk of failing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, if it does not act on the recommendations set out by the Close the Gap campaign, as a priority over the next 12 months.”
Jackie Huggins, the co-chair of the steering committee and of the national Congress for Australia’s First Peoples, was unapologetic about the strongly worded report.
“It has to be, because of the dire situation we’ve found ourselves in,” she told Guardian Australia. “I get tired of going along every year and hearing that we’re going backwards in closing the gap.”
Among the report’s recommendations was a restoration of funding to the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples and a national inquiry into racism and institutional racism in Australia’s healthcare settings to address issues of access and treatment, particularly in remote communities.
State and federal cooperation on the Close the Gap statement of intent and a new Indigenous health workforce strategy must also occur, it said.
The campaign also recommended the continuation of funding for Indigenous health services at current levels until a core services model, addressing Indigenous health and the medical workforce, was fully implemented.
“Our own Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioners can transcend the barriers of cultural norms in terms of being able to get to the root of the problem of the person’s health status,” Huggins said.
“They can cut a lot of red tape and cut communication and cultural boundaries down. It’s important we do have a viable Indigenous health practitioner workforce so we can really get into those issues that concern us.”
While the report noted progress in some areas of employment and education, the rates of family and community violence among Indigenous people were unchanged and the rates of psychological distress, self-harm and substance misuse had risen dramatically in the past 10 to 15 years.
“For too long, we have been left with hand-wringing platitudes about the issue of suicide for our peoples,” it said. “Generations of disempowerment, trauma, loss of culture and acute poverty has left the rate of suicide among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as one of the highest in the developed world.
“Our response to the crisis will be judged by future generations.”
The campaign said the health equality gaps would never be closed unless social and cultural determinants of health were addressed with a nationally coordinated strategy.
Writing for Guardian Australia on Thursday, the chief executive of the Healing Foundation, Richard Weston, said good health wasn’t determined by access to services alone.
“It is influenced by a range of factors impacting on human lives on a day-to-day basis including income, education, conditions of employment, power and social support – the social determinants of health,” he said.
“While the social determinants of health take on a critical role in trying to close this gap, in Australia we continue to try and respond to the Indigenous health crisis by putting an ‘Indigenous spin” on western approaches. We must change this around. It has to be solutions that are developed, designed and supported by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves, for their own communities. If not we will not close the gap.”
The report also said the launch of the Redfern statement, in which a host of Indigenous organisations and peak bodies united to call for a relationship with government, was a watershed moment and should serve as a wake-up call to government.
