Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians

The quality of identification of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians varies between jurisdictions and between administrative data collections and surveys within jurisdictions, as well as within data collections over time. It also varies between regions, with more complete coverage (as a result of better identification) in remote areas. As such, PHIDU had not mapped these and other data about this population group.

In 2005 the South Australian Aboriginal Health Partnership, comprised of the South Australian Department of Health, the Commonwealth Government Department of Health and Ageing and the Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia, published a report Aboriginal Health – Everybody’s Business - Aboriginal Health Indicators. Accessed 14 December 2010 at http://www.health.sa.gov.au/Default.aspx?tabid=58

Following the release of this report, which maps a range of indicators including deaths, hospital admissions etc., PHIDU approached SA Health and offered to include the published data on its website, to add some other data (in particular indicators of socioeconomic status) and to update these data from time to time. This offer was accepted and the atlases now appear on the PHIDU website.

In 2006 agreement was reached with the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health for PHIDU to produce similar atlases for Australia; these were first published in 2007.