Close the Gap: Progress and priorities report 2015
Close the Gap: Progress and priorities report 2015 Report
- Author(s): Christopher Holland
- Published: 2015
- Publisher: Australian Human Rights Commission, The Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee
Abstract: The Campaign Steering Committee welcomes the absolute gains in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life expectancy from 2005–2007 to 2010–2012. Over that five-year period, life expectancy is estimated to have increased by 1.6 years for males and by 0.6 of a year for females. But a life expectancy gap of around ten years remains for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people when compared with non-Indigenous people. Both the modesty of the gains, and the magnitude of the remaining life expectancy gap remind us why the Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) Closing the Gap Strategy and the target to close the life expectancy gap was needed. It remains necessary today. But we must also keep in mind that closing the life expectancy gap requires time. The Closing the Gap Strategy was operationalised in July 2009 and the latest data we have is from 2012–2013. This is too short a time to adequately assess the progress of this Strategy in achieving outcomes. Instead, the Campaign Steering Committee look to reductions in smoking rates, improvements to maternal and child health outcomes and demonstrated inroads into the impact of chronic diseases as evidence that the Closing the Gap Strategy is working.
- Urls: https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/CTG_progress_and_priorities_report_2015.pdf Available from, https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-social-justice/publications/close-gap-progress-and-0 Download site
- Publisher Location: Canberra