Roxon signs off on Indigenous health pledges

Indigenous Australians will have access to the same health services as the rest of the population by 2018, under a Federal Government plan.

The Government is also promising to close the 17-year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians by 2030.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon will sign the pledges today.

"We absolutely have to do everything we can to try and make that happen," She said.

The commitment will also be signed by Indigenous health groups. Under the plan, power would be handed to community-controlled Aboriginal health providers.

The Coalition is reluctant to lend its support to the plan.

Opposition Indigenous affairs spokesman Tony Abbott says he was given little notice and he was not involved in the wording of the pledge.