Aboriginal coalition gives Govt health petition

A coalition of human rights, health and Aboriginal groups has presented the Government with a set of targets it says are necessary to improve the life expectancy of Indigenous Australians.

The Federal Government has committed to closing the 17-year life expectancy gap within a generation.

The targets from the Close the Gap coalition include goals to improve the delivery of not only health services to Indigenous people, but also better housing and education.

Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander commissioner Tom Calma says the Government needs to see the targets as an integrated plan, and cannot "cherry pick" from the recommendations.

"It'll only work if we have a strategy, we have targets, we understand what the benchmarks are going to be," he said.

"It's well time-framed and it's well resourced and these are the challenges for Government, and these are the challenges that we as the coalition of interested parties have put to Government today."

Mr Tom Calma says the targets provide a comprehensive plan to improve Indigenous health.

"The non-government sector has been able to work together, all the major health organisations have been able to work together to develop up targets for Government to consider," he said.

"And these targets are for all sectors of Government. It's so important because what it does is bring some discipline in, and it's the discipline of a human rights framework into addressing Indigenous health."

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