Small gains in closing the gap

LIFE expectancy for indigenous men has increased by 1.6 years in the past five years and for women the increase is 0.6 of a year.

LIFE expectancy for indigenous men has increased by 1.6 years in the past five years and for women the increase is 0.6 of a year.

New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics released yesterday reveals life expectancy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has improved but it still lags behind that of non-indigenous Australians.

"The data shows a small but welcome improvement in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life expectancy. However, a significant gap remains," Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda said.

The life expectancy gap is now 10.6 years for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and 9.5 years for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women when compared with the average life expectancy of non-indigenous Australians.

This gap has narrowed by 0.8 years for men and 0.1 years for women in the past five years, according to the ABS data. "It's a small gain but we are encouraged by this data," said Mr Gooda, who is also co-chairman of the Close the Gap campaign. "When we started the campaign, we knew this was a generational effort. We now need to ramp up those efforts. We need to build on these small improvements if we're to close the gap by 2030," he said.

"More adults are receiving health checks in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services, more patients are receiving care for diabetes and babies are being born healthier."

Mr Gooda said the campaign would continue to work with government and the opposition towards health equality.

"It's heartening to see government, opposition and Greens support, and almost 200,000 Australians have pledged their support. Closing the gap is a national priority and an area of bipartisan support that the government can build on."

ABS director of demography Bjorn Jarvis said the figures "show that the gap in life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people compared to non-indigenous people has narrowed, but only slightly".