BETTER START IN A PACK
21.07.2008

EDITORIAL.

Queensland's initiative is on-the-ground reconciliation

IN order to close the 17-year life expectancy gap between indigenous and other Australians, a vital place to tackle nutrition and health is early childhood. To this end, the Queensland Government is to be commended for considering a scheme that will offer all babies born on indigenous communities free or low-cost food, clothing and basic pharmaceuticals.
As Tony Koch reports today, the ``baby packs'' are part of a sweeping overview prepared by two hands-on doctors who serve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in north Queensland, pediatric surgeon Richard Heazlewood and general practitioner Lara Wieland.
Available on The Australian's website, the document identifies issues to be urgently addressed, including child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse, poor nutrition, poor school attendance and housing.
While most of these will require persistent, long-term solutions, the baby packs are an ideal place to start in building on the ideas of reformers such as Queensland lawyer Noel Pearson. The baby packs will probably cost about $100 a week for the 350 babies born on Cape York each year. This, as Queensland Premier Anna Bligh points out, is a ``drop in the bucket'' compared with the almost open-ended costs of trying to deal with irreperable damage in later life that so often stems from poor infant nutrition, hygiene and lack of appropriate medication.
As the doctors point out, indigenous children suffer diseases rarely seen in mainstream Australia. These include malnutrition, childhood anaemia, chronic ear disease leading to deafness, fetal alcohol syndrome, kidney disease from skin sores and scabies and rheumatic fever. To reinforce the moves, Ms Bligh will show her Queensland cabinet colleagues and health officials a video presentation compiled by Dr Heazlewood from more than two decades working in northern communities.
Now that the framework of practical reconciliation has been established, a long series of incremental steps must unfold to turn a good vision into reality. Combined with regular baby health checks, at which they will be made available, ``baby packs'' are a cost-effective, valuable initiative that should make a real difference. It is an idea worth replicating in other states.