NACCHO lodged a submission to the Senate Community Affairs Reference Committee Inquiry in September 2019.

Closing the gap in inequities experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as compared to other Australians in income, employment, education, housing, justice, health and wellbeing and other areas of life should be a priority of the Australian Government.

The legacy of colonisation, continuing impacts of racism and a range of social determinants of health results in many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living well below an ‘acceptable standard of living’. Dispossession from land and resources has made the rest of the nation rich while many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities are impoverished.