PM URGED TO HELP GET BLACKS OFF HEROIN

Aboriginal leaders have stepped up calls for John Howard to boost indigenous health funding in the wake of a spate of heroin overdoses in Canberra.Ten per cent of Canberra's Aboriginal community, including children as young as 10 years old, are using heroin, according to a report released yesterday.

Three young Aboriginal men have died in the past month, prompting a call from the Canberra-based Aboriginal health service Winnunga Nimmityjah for immediate action on indigenous health.

The service's chief executive, Julie Tongs, said yesterday the deaths of two men in their 20s, and a teenager, showed that pleas for aid were being ignored by territory, state and federal governments.

She said another two Aboriginal men had died from overdoses earlier this year.

Ms Tongs said 500 of Canberra's 5000 indigenous people were using heroin. There could be no talk of reconciliation until the devastation heroin was causing families was dealt with, she said.

The call follows a meeting of the peak National Aboriginal Controlled Health Organisations in Canberra this week that urged the federal Government to boost spending by up to $250 million following a spate of indigenous suicides.

Spokesman Ted Wilkes said he was keen to invite the international media to Aboriginal communities across Australia so they could see "just how bad things are".

"There was a young man in the Kimberley who took his life just the other day and another in south-west Western Australia. Our youth have no hope, no chance of getting a job, no chance of a fair go, and we are seeing a whole rash of copycat suicides," he said.

Mr Wilkes said the money was needed to repair indigenous health infrastructure, particularly in remote regional areas.