Gap widening between indigenous, other Australians
SYDNEY — Children in Australia’s Aboriginal communities are six times as likely to be abused or neglected than the country’s non-indigenous children, a government report said Thursday.
The report, meant to measure social and economic improvements among Australia’s most disadvantaged minority, instead highlights the continuned — and in some cases growing — discrepancies between their lives and those of other Australians.
“Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage” showed that the gap in child abuse had widened since it was last issued two years ago. In 2003, the first year of the report, abuse in Aboriginal communities was said to be four times as likely.
The report also said Aboriginal people are 13 times more likely to end up in prison and 34 times more likely to be hospitalized due to domestic violence.
In fact, the report found no improvement in 80 percent of the economic and social categories measured.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told a meeting of federal and state government leaders in the northern city of Darwin that the report was “devastating,” and that strategies should be devised to close the gaps.
“We have to redouble and treble our efforts to make an impact,” Rudd told reporters outside the meeting. “It is unacceptable and it requires decisive action.”
Aborigines make up about 2 percent of the country’s 22 million population and are the poorest and unhealthiest minority, with an average life expectancy at least 10 years shorter than other Australians.
One positive note in the report was on infant mortality, which improved for Aborigines in most states and territories but was still two to three times higher than for non-indigenous Australians.
Australia’s federal and state governments have set targets of closing the gap in six areas: life expectancy; child mortality; early childhood education; literacy and numeracy; high school graduation; and employment. It also hopes to see improvements in other indicators, such as post-secondary education, family and community violence, imprisonment and health.
Gary Banks, chairman of the committee that produced the report, said it showed “mixed progress” on the still “quite wide gaps” between indigenous and non-indigenous populations.
“There have been laudable efforts to improve data in recent years, but more work is needed,” he said.
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said there was a history of government underspending in indigenous housing, education, health and employment.
“This report really does demonstrate the depth and the extent of the challenge in front of us,” Macklin said.
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