DEBORAH ONEILL

Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Health

Senator for New South Wales
MEDIA RELEASE
12 March 2015

ABBOTT CUTS HAVE DEVASTATING OUTCOME

The Abbott Governments cuts to frontline services for the Indigenous community was playing
a deadly game with peoples lives, a Senate inquiry was told today.
Its time to stop this madness, the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Health, Senator
Deborah ONeill, said.
The Abbott Government needs to explain to Australians, and especially our First People, why
it is cutting funding to vital frontline healthcare, because this inquiry has heard from witness
after witness about the dreadful consequences these cuts will bring.
Dr Tamara Mackean, chair of the Royal Australian College Physicians Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Committee, told the hearing in Penrith today of the recent death of a youth in
central Australia from petrol sniffing.
There was a very sad story as a direct result of having youth activities, health promotion
activities around alcohol and other drugs having been cancelled or curtailed, Dr Mackean
said.
Cutting these frontline services is almost devoid of the human reality of the situation. We have
to understand these cuts have consequences and those consequences can be quite dire.
We need to see the human face of what this means, people need to see what happens when
you do this [cut funding]. When we lose the lives of our young people, we are doing a massive
disservice to all of us.
The College has had ongoing discussions with the federal Health Department in attempt to
understand the rationale behind the Abbott Governments health cuts and policy decisions.
Dr Mackean said the Governments thinking to raise money through health cuts and
increased charges to pay for medical research was flawed, and akin to robbing Peter to pay
Paul.
I do not feel that the best way to pay for research is to take it from frontline services, Dr
Mackean told the hearing.
I do not agree that this process should further disadvantage our First People. We need to
move from a process of our First People to not only surviving but to thriving.

Senator ONeill said the committee had heard evidence about the vital role preventative
healthcare had for the health of the nation.
There is clear evidence sustained and long-term preventative health such as that provided in
Indigenous communities by professional Aboriginal Health Workers, is highly effective against
lifestyle-related chronic disease which is on the rise in Australia, Senator ONeill said.
Given the rhetoric this Government sprouted at the time of the Closing the Gap report, Tony
Abbott still goes ahead with cuts of more than $500 million to Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander programs.
Contact:

Anne Charlton
02 4367 4565

Resources
www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Health/Health/Public_Hearings