Hope Vale Mayor Bruce Gibson says Indigenous community had record preventable deaths in 2024

A Far North Queensland community has broken its own tragic record for the most preventable deaths in any given year.

Hope Vale Mayor Bruce Gibson and federal Health Minister Mark Butler.

A Far North Queensland community has broken its own tragic record for the most preventable deaths in any given year.

Hope Vale shire, north of Cooktown, lost 23 people to preventable deaths in 2024, surpassing the record in 2020, according to council data.

The Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet says the average mortality rate for Indigenous Australians is 9.3 per 1000.

Hope Vale has a population of about 1000, meaning it lost 2 per cent of its population in just one year.

Mayor Bruce Gibson said he felt like he was repeating himself while explaining frustrations over preventable deaths, and their causes.

He said he was tired of being told what’s good for him by politicians.

“It’s always been the fact that ‘We know what’s good for you’ and our lives are politics,” Mr Gibson said.

“What we’ve put to the government is – give us the opportunity to commission services in our communities for what we need.”

Mr Gibson said the causes of deaths weren’t surprising – fruit and vegetables as well as meat priced unaffordably for the Cape communities, leading to a diminished nutrition intake, overcrowding in houses, few health services and limited employment opportunities creating mental health issues, have long been reported.

Bruce Gibson, Hope Vale Aboriginal Shire Council Mayor.

Mr Gibson has joined a chorus of Cape leaders calling for the local commissioning of culturally-appropriate healthcare, after his northern counterparts made similar calls following the release of the independent investigation into Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service’s operations.

Mr Gibson said calls for Indigenous health autonomy were growing louder because government initiatives “clearly aren’t working”.

“It feels like it’s going no where and we’re still dying. Look at Hope Vale, look at Kowanyama.

Hope Vale Primary Health Centre.

“If I could put a name on it, or the best way to describe it is social genocide. They’re social issues, how do we reflect the life expectancy of the non Indigenous, onto the Indigenous?”

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler visited Cairns on Tuesday, and said he was hearing the calls from Indigenous leaders in his portfolio.

“My sense is that there isn’t a complete consensus right now between those communities about that model (of community commissioning),” he said.

“We’ve been in discussions (with Cape mayors). Once that consensus is there … we bring a lot of funding to it and there’d be much more local ownership, community ownership, about the planning and design of systems.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler says he’s aware of a push for greater Indigenous health autonomy. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“But as a matter of principle, it’s really exciting, not just for the Cape and the Torres, but what it might teach us generally, for the rest of the country.”

Mr Gibson said he wanted future discussions with government to be more focused on establishing business and revenue streams, citing the deaths by suicide in his community were linked to limited employment opportunities.

“I’ve been there, when I left school – ‘What to do, how am I going to live in this world?’

“To me – studying – yes it gave you a degree, but how do you apply a degree in Hope Vale?

“The conversations about creating economies isn’t happening yet. It’s still about control and social support.

“Let’s re-establish our agriculture, let’s look at alternative business opportunities, for instance – the government established a modular housing factory part of Qbuild in Cairns. I think we know where most of those modular homes will go, so why couldn’t that business be established in Hope Vale, or another Cape community?”

Originally published as Hope Vale Mayor Bruce Gibson says Indigenous community had record preventable deaths in 2024