Death rate is three times higher among Aboriginal children

The death rate among Aboriginal children is nearly three times higher than among non-indigenous infants, according to a study of Australian health trends published yesterday. The figures also show that 70% of the Aboriginal population, who number almost 500,000, die before the age of 65, compared with 20% of other Australians. The average life expectancy for Aboriginal men is 59, compared with 77 for non-indigenous males, according to the report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

While researchers found a fall in infant mortality among Aborigines in some areas, the overall findings paint a bleak picture of the state of indigenous health. The report says poor nutrition, obesity, smoking, alcohol and drug abuse are the main causes of death and illness.

Overcrowded housing, unsafe drinking water and poor sanitary conditions are also contributory factors, the study found. The most common causes of death among the adult population are diabetes, heart disease, cancer and violence.

The figures, which show that little has changed despite years of government funding designed to improve the living conditions of Aborigines, prompted Australia's health minister, Tony Abbott, to call for a "new paternalism".

In sentiments that echoed an earlier, colonial-style approach, Mr Abbott, a coalition frontbencher closely aligned to the conservative prime minister, John Howard, proposed the appointment of administrators with wide-ranging powers to run Aboriginal communities. Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, he said: "A form of paternalism based on competence rather than race is really unavoidable if these places are to be well run."

He said the basic problem of Aboriginal disadvantage was not a lack of spending but the directionless culture in which Aboriginal people lived. The minister suggested Australia's sense of guilt about the past and its naive idealisation of communal life might be the biggest obstacles to the betterment of Aborigines.

The remarks were greeted with disbelief by indigenous leaders and opposition politicians. Tom Calma, the Aboriginal social justice commissioner, likened Mr Abbott's suggestion to a return to the days of Christian missionaries. "We have suffered in indigenous society because of paternalism for too many years," he said in a radio interview. "One of the problems of paternalism is that it doesn't allow individuals to learn to develop responsibility."

Labour's health spokeswoman, Julia Gillard, urged the minister to stop lecturing Aborigines and to start helping them.