Tony Abbott's inappropriate response to the international scandal created by the WHO report into Aboriginal health has all the hallmarks of a Minister ducking for cover.
"The Health Minister's claim that "If it were easy to tackle it would have been tackled a long time ago," is no excuse for his failure to prioritise the issue of Aboriginal health and take some steps to address the issue," said Senator Rachel Siewert today.
"Quite simply, if the Minister thinks the issue is important, then he should have tackled it properly a long time ago," she said.
"Is he now claiming the portfolio is too hard for him to handle?"
"The truth is that there has been a decade of neglect of Aboriginal health. While other nations have made the effort and seen the results, Indigenous Australians continue to suffer poor access to primary health care and atrocious health outcomes under the Minister's watch."
"Australians do want to see practical outcomes on Indigenous health. It is a sorry day when Oxfam have to campaign on basic health care issues in what is supposedly a first world country."
"Throwing up your hands and claiming the job is too hard will achieve nothing - you need to commit to a major increase for Aboriginal health funding in this budget and every budget until the problem is solved."
"Anything less than the $500 million identified by the AMA is simply not good enough."