So close, yet so far

: how a lack of accountability undermined COAG’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health goals

Abstract

The health disparity between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other Australians remains one of the nation’s foremost public health challenges. The multi-pronged Indigenous reform agenda sponsored by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), designed to redress this failure, has been in place for several years. However change is slower than hoped and uptake of the health measures it introduced is generally low. Primary health care provided by the general practice sector was a central focus of COAG’s health agenda. New, targeted, evidence-based health interventions specifically for Indigenous people and mediated by general practitioners (GPs) were added to similar existing interventions. On paper, these interventions held the promise of considerable health gains. However little attention was paid to the historically low uptake of such interventions or the sector through which they were to be delivered. The consequence has been generally poor coverage of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population and unrealised potential for improved health outcomes.

Date of Award	Oct 2013
Original language	English
Supervisor	Darren Benham (Supervisor) & Fadwa Al-Yaman (Supervisor)