Cuts to the Tackling Indigenous Smoking program in this year’s budget will contribute to the early deaths of Aboriginal smokers, a former race discrimination commissioner has warned.
The program’s budget is $65 million a year when fully funded, but Tom Calma said there was a decision made to cut funding by $130 million over five years – effectively more than a third of the program’s annual funding.
In the 1940s more than 70 per cent of non-Indigenous Australian men were smokers.
After decades of initiatives, from cutting tobacco advertising to introducing non-smoking areas, that number fell to just 20 per cent.
But Mr Calma said Indigenous Australia has been left behind.
“In the Indigenous population, it’s around about 42 per cent of our people smoke, so it’s over double the smoking incidence of the general population,” he said.
“But in some of our remoter communities, we know that it’s as high as 70 per cent.”
Such high smoking rates have significant implications for the life expectancy of Indigenous Australians.
Last year, the single greatest point of agreement for all states and territories was to reduce chronic disease by reducing smoking rates, according to the Closing the Gap steering committee report.
In 2010, Mr Calma became the national coordinator of the Tackling Indigenous Smoking program, with teams of six around the country running anti-smoking programs targeting Indigenous Australians.
“In Darwin, we’ve got a situation where one of our major teams, which would normally have six staff, now only have two staff,” Mr Calma said.
“They’re only doing a third of what they had the capacity to do.”
Other services are in a similar situation around the nation, and Mr Calma said the cuts will make it difficult to reach the target of halving Indigenous smoking rates by 2018.
“The team had to be fully funded, had to be functional, and so the chances of reaching that 2018 target is near impossible now,” he said.
He said reducing information about smoking will contribute to the early deaths of Indigenous Australians.
“The logic is that a reduction in information will mean that there will be people who don’t receive that information to make an informed choice, and that will contribute to their early demise,” he said.
A spokesperson for Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash said the Government is committed to addressing tobacco-related illness in Indigenous people.
The spokesperson said a review of the current program will ensure that funding is directed towards services which deliver results.
Calma not confident review will restore funding
But Mr Calma said he was not confident the review – announced at the same time as the cuts – will restore funding levels, even if it it positive.
“There’s already been an announcement of $130 million cut,” he said.
“There seems to be a general interest in further savings across all programs, and what concerns me is that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs are easy hits.”
Mr Calma said it was up to the Prime Minister to say what part of the Closing the Gap campaign he was committed to.
“The Prime Minister, who also is the champion for Indigenous affairs, says that he’s fully committed to the Closing the Gap campaign,” he said.
“I think the question has got to be: what is he committed to in that program?
“Is it about healthy equality, which is what the Close the Gap campaign was all about, and I think only the Prime Minister can talk about that.”