ABORIGINAL GROUP CALLS FOR ACTION ON DRUGS

Australia's peak Aboriginal health body issued an impassioned call in
Canberra yesterday for action on drug and alcohol abuse.

Indigenous people were sick of getting a "hug here and there" instead of
the means to fix the crippling problem of drug and alcohol abuse, the
chairman of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health
Organisation, Puggy Hunter, said.

Launching the Substance Misuse Plan, he said it was time to stop dreaming
up solutions in Canberra and Sydney and imposing them on communities. This
kind of approach had led to real waste, with "some stupid programs" running
that had no health impact.

He said, "we are very keen to be in control of our future" and that meant
determining what the dollars would be best spent on.

Aboriginal people were sick of burying their children.

The organisation's chief executive officer, Craig Ritchie, said action
needed money, and that it agreed with the recently issued report from
Australian National University professor John Deeble, who said $245 million
a year was needed to redress the imbalance in health spending between
indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

Action needed money, and without extra funding none of the organisation's
plans could get under way.

Mr Hunter said that drinking could not just be addressed by "taking away
the grog", a broader approach, which acknowledged the reasons for drug and
alcohol abuse, was needed.

Among the priorities were: more support people in the communities, more
Aboriginal health workers and more places close to home for people to go
when they were sick.

The organisation had broken off from the Aboriginal and Torres Straight
Islander Commission because there was simply not enough funding to go
around. However, applying for funds direct from the Government meant that
NACCHO spent more time "chasing dollars" than getting on with the job.

By the time an Aborigine got to a hospital it was almost always too late.
Health had to be dealt with by primary health carers, based in the
communities, and priorities needed to be set by people on the ground, who
knew what was going on.

The way the Commonwealth handed out funding all the parts of the body were
being treated separately, which meant that some would start falling off, Mr
Hunter said.

The chairman of the Prime Minister's key drug advisory body, the Australian
National Council on Drugs, Major Brian Watters, expressed support for the
idea of empowering local communities to deal with their own drug problems.