Closing the Gap Isn't Working

In Closing the Gap isn't working, retired General Practitioner Chris Gilford takes a critical look at the campaign which started in about 2008 and was intended to close the gap between the health, education and employment of First Nations Peoples and the rest of the Australian population. Sadly despite the spending of billions of taxpayers' dollars very few of the indices have shown any improvement. The author concentrates on the health issues and goes right back in history to find the causes of the gap. The colonialists contributed to the mortality of First Nations people with weapons and the germs they brought with them, but there is now a more insidious factor which is continuing to disproportionately affect First Nations people. Life expectancy and childhood mortality rates improved substantially in the major towns and cities in Australia before the onset of Modern Medicine with its heart surgery, kidney dialysis and virtually all the pharmaceuticals that are available today, but the improvement in remote areas has been far less. The Closing the Gap campaign has many faults, including the way the Federal Government has funded it, the way the Agencies who implement it are managed, the selection of key indicators and the response by the First Nations people. Despite this there is optimism that solutions can be found.