FED: Money not the answer to improving indigenous health: report

AAP General News (Australia)
12-03-2009
FED: Money not the answer to improving indigenous health: report

Eds: Embargoed until 0001 (AEDT) Thursday, December 3



By Julian Drape

CANBERRA, Dec 3 AAP - The commonwealth has increased its funding for indigenous health
programs by 250 per cent over the past decade, but Aborigines have not benefited as a
result, a new report suggests.

Spending jumped from $115 million in 1995-96 to $492 million in 2007-08, "with no appreciable
improvements in health outcomes", according to the conservative think tank the Centre
for Independent Studies (CIS).

The commonwealth spent $600 million on indigenous health last financial year, a further
50 per cent increase on the 2007-08 level.

But the report's author, Sara Hudson, says the money is being wasted.

"The Rudd government is doing what previous administrations have always done - throwing
more and more money at the problem," the report says.

"But this is not the solution. Improvements in indigenous health outcomes will only
occur once the lack of accountability that has plagued the Aboriginal health sector ends."

The CIS report, Closing the Accountability Gap, says there are numerous programs for
every foreseeable indigenous health issue.

But most are provided because someone believes they are a good idea or because funding
can be secured, not because they are necessarily needed.

"The untargeted nature of government spending on health means it is difficult to know
what services the money is buying and for whom," the report says.

More damning is the suggestion that there is a lack of financial accountability across
the sector.

"Fewer than half of the Aboriginal health services file annual reports or complete
their financial reporting requirements," the report says.

"They face few consequences for not filing reports, but the repercussions of this apathy
have resulted in financial mismanagement, insolvency and even fraud."

The report suggests the way forward could be to adopt a proposal of federal Labor's
National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission.

The commission recommended a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health
authority be established to pool disparate funding streams.

"There needs to be better management of overall funding and a strategy to co-ordinate
how programs are delivered," the CIS report concludes.

AAP jcd/sb/jhp/cdh

KEYWORD: INDIGENOUS HEALTH (EMBARGOED)

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