Australian government pushes to stop early Aboriginal deaths

By James Grubel

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Six weeks after making an historic apology to Aborigines for years of mistreatment, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Thursday promised to stop Aborigines from dying younger than white Australians.

Aborigines die an average 17 years younger than other Australians, while the rate of aboriginal infants dying before their first birthday was double that of non-indigenous children.

Rudd said the statistics were unacceptable, and he signed a pledge to improve health services for remote indigenous communities and close the life-expectancy gap within 30 years.

"We want to get to this end point which is to close the obscene gap of life expectancy between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, to close the obscenity of the gap between indigenous children under the age of 5 and non-indigenous children," he said.

Australia has about 460,000 indigenous Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, who make up about 2 percent of the 21 million population.

Aborigines are the most disadvantaged group in Australia, with many living in remote outback communities with little access to government services, where they suffer higher rates of alcohol and drug abuse, unemployment, imprisonment and domestic violence.

Rudd ushered in a new era in race relations in February when he apologized for past injustices against Aborigines, including old assimilation policies under which aboriginal children were taken from their homes to live in institutions and white households.

He told an indigenous health conference on Thursday that the government would boost funding to encourage more Aborigines to become doctors and nurses, and would spend A$14.5 million (6.7 million pounds) to try to crack down on smoking by Aborigines.