Closing the gap depends on ACCHSs

Abstract

[Extract] The Hon. Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, addressed federal Parliament on 26 February 2009 regarding the Closing the gap on Indigenous disadvantage: the challenge for Australia report.1 In his speech, he asserted that government strategy to close the gap will focus on the treatment of Indigenous Australians' illnesses largely through the mainstream health system, because that is where 70% of Indigenous people are treated. Unfortunately, the 70% figure is an urban myth based on one poorly worded question in the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey 2004–05.3 At the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO), we are concerned about the use of distorted evidence regarding the health of Aboriginal peoples, in particular the use of questionable data to formulate policies that undermine investment in Aboriginal community controlled health services (ACCHSs).