Skip to main content

Dr G Yunupingu's death highlights gap in Indigenous life expectancy

Broadcast 
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
Dr G Yunupingu's death highlights gap in Indigenous life expectancy

The death this week of the wonderful singer Dr G Yunipingu at the age of just 46 from long-term illness, brings home once again the disparity in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

On average, it's 10 years and in February this year, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull tabled the 2017 Closing the Gap report. It showed Australia is failing on six out of seven key measures to boost Indigenous Australia. Why does it still seem so hard to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia?

John Paterson is the Chief Executive Officer of the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance of the Northern Territory. John is a Ngalakan man from south-east Arnhem land.

Gill Gorham is the manager of the Renal Research Program at Menzies School of Health Research. Gill was nurse manager for 15 years at the Royal Darwin Hospital and also worked at the senior nurse advisor for the Department of Health for close to a decade.

Credits

Broadcast 
Indigenous Culture, Indigenous Policy, Health Policy
QR code image for downloading the ABC listen app

Discover more podcasts

Download the ABC listen app to hear more of your favourite podcasts