Life expectancy

Life expectancy is not the same throughout Australia as indigenous Australians have a much lower life expectancy than the non-indigenous. Indigenous Australians has the life expectancy of 59.4 years for males and 64.8 years for females (born in 1996-2001) while non-indigenous males have a life expectancy of 76 years while females being 86 years. This vast difference in life expectancy results from higher number of indigenous people with poor nutrition (causes obesity, malnutrition, cancers and diseases), tobacco smoking (causes lung diseases, cardiovascular disease, cancers) and excessive drinking (causes liver problems, cancers, diabetes). Inequality is a growing problem in Australia like in other countries and must by stopped for which Australia has blatantly accused china of human rights while being hypocritical as they are not doing about the human rights of the indigenous population here.

Major causes of Sickness & Death

The most frequent cause of death to indigenous Australians, both male and female was cardiovascular disease which is the disease of the circulatory system (e.g. stroke and heart attack).Cardiovascular disease can result from poor nutrition, lack of physical activity, high cholesterol and obesity. Death from Cardiovascular disease is 3x higher in indigenous Australians than the non-indigenous population. The most frequent specific cause of death for Indigenous males and females was coronary (ischaemic heart disease), which there were around three times more deaths.

The next most frequent cause of death is injury. Injury may result from assault, self-harm, transport accidents. Health condition caused by injury for indigenous Australians was 1.4x more than the non-indigenous population. Injury in indigenous population was the cause of 16% of death compared to 6% to non-indigenous. Death caused by injury for indigenous males has 38% of it caused by intentional self-harm and 26% transport accidents. Death caused by injury for indigenous females has 34% of it caused by transport accidents and 21% caused by intentional self harm.

Cancer is another common cause of death to indigenous Australians. Although the indigenous people generally have less incidence of cancer (less people having cancer) than the non-indigenous, they have higher death rates (shown in the table below) caused by alcohol abuse, no immunisation and testing. Lung cancer is the most common form of cancer accounting for about 31% for indigenous males and 26% of indigenous females. Death from digestive cancer is close behind with 29% for indigenous males and 19% for indigenous females.

National policies

The federal government created a payment in which indigenous students could apply for to help them stay at school or go onto further studies. This would greatly benefit them as the indigenous student has a chance to be educated and have a better job, increasing their living standards

The Federal government intervenes in Aboriginal Communities under the Prime Minister John Howard with concerns of child safety. The intervention includes increasing army and police presence in the indigenous communities, controlling where welfare payments is spent and banning alcohol. The intervention was described by doctors as “poorly coordinated, poorly planned.”  Child safety is not an isolated problem; it links with unemployment, poverty and drug abuse.

My ideas

The state government should invest money into schools and education programs for indigenous people (focusing more on rural areas as education isn’t as good than the urban areas) as this will help these people become educated enough to have a better life and job while investing in this means more skilled workers, allowing more tax to be earned by the federal government. Good education also helps with preventing them from living a life of assault, alcohol, smoking and laziness. With good education comes lower crime rate and a better community as buildings are not vandalised and younger generations look up them as role models and become more likely to follow their footsteps.

The federal government should create a national scheme providing funding for the rebuilding and building of communities, using the money to build homeless shelters, tools, building materials, water tanks and solar panels allowing communities to become self-sufficient and allow them to be productive. The federal government should create a national scheme in which unemployed indigenous people are given the choice of jobs that are available allowing them to be productive and give them a chance of higher living standards. The federal government should also ban alcohol and tobacco in indigenous communities as they create lower living standards and increased crime, with this they should put in place rehabilitation to prevent the ban stressing and creating problems for the current users.

The council should encourage the indigenous population to do voluntary community service to help them be productive and allow the improvement of the community. Also the council should encourage recycling items, reusing items and following safe disposal methods by educating them with speakers, talking in various gatherings e.g. school and town meeting.

Conclusion

In conclusion inequality is a growing problem and results in many health problems and poor living conditions which these humans deserve.