City
Epaper

Suicide, incarceration rates rising among Indigenous Australians

By IANS | Updated: July 29, 2021 14:36 IST

Canberra, July 29 A new reported published on Thursday revealed that Indigenous Austral were significantly more likely to ...

Open in App

Canberra, July 29 A new reported published on Thursday revealed that Indigenous Austral were significantly more likely to be imprisoned, die by suicide or have their children removed, than non-Indigenous people.

The report was published by Closing the Gap program that aims to reduce disadvantage among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Xinhua news agency reported.

Thursday's report was the first time that data on the strategy has been published since federal, state and territory governments reached an agreement with Indigenous organisations to overhaul the framework in July 2020.

It found that while improvements in life expectancy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people since the baseline of 2005-2007 narrowed the gap to 8.6 years for boys and 7.8 years for girls in 2015-2017, the national target of "no gap" was not on track to be met.

The suicide rate among Indigenous people rose to 27.1 per 100,000 in 2019, with the target of a "significant and sustained reduction in suicide towards zero" not on track to be met.

Among the agreement's targets is a goal to reduce Indigenous incarceration rates by 15 percent within the decade.

The report found that the Indigenous incarceration rate rose to 2,081 per 100,000 people in June 2020, with the national target not on track to be met.

In 2020, the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged 0-17 years in out-of-home care was 56.3 per 1,000 children in the population, an increase from the 2019 baseline, with the national target of a "reduction in the rate of home care by 45 per cent" not on track to be met, said the report.

However, the rate of Indigenous children in youth detention fell to 25.7 per 10,000, with the national target on track to be met.

The Productivity Commission could not provide an update on some of the 17 targets due to a lack of available data.

"The agreement is now 12 months old, but the most recent available data for monitoring these socioeconomic outcomes are only just hitting the commencement date for the agreement," commissioner Romlie Mokak said in a media release.

"It is likely to be some years before we see the influence of this agreement on these outcomes."

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

Tags: Romlie MokakXinhua
Open in App

Related Stories

InternationalMajor UK Railway Stations Hit by Cyber Attack; Network Rail Suspends Wi-Fi Service

InternationalGreece braces for first summer heat wave

PoliticsSudan govt willing to work with all parties to end conflict

InternationalCyprus prepares for emergencies in face of approaching heat wave

PoliticsUkraine receives cluster munitions from US

Politics Realted Stories

MumbaiWho Is Tejasvee Ghosalkar? Shiv Sena UBT Leader and Former Corporator Joins BJP Ahead of BMC Polls

MaharashtraSanjay Raut Says Sena–MNS Already Together No Need Others Permission

MaharashtraBig Jolt to Sharad Pawar as Salil Deshmukh, Son of Anil Deshmukh, Quits NCP-SP

PoliticsEknath Shinde Issues Strict No-Crossover Order After Meeting Amit Shah; Directive Communicated to All Shiv Sena Leaders

MaharashtraBMC Elections 2025: Devendra Fadnavis Says Clarity on Seat-Sharing Will Emerge in Two Days