Ideas@TheCentre
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Gets It Right?
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) this week released it s 2009 report card on Australian children’s health, development and wellbeing.
Here at CIS, we are often quick to criticise reports such as this for resting conclusions on questionable evidence or making sweeping statements based on headline indicators which are so broad they don’t really tell us anything.
But it’s also worth noting when this type of report gets it (mostly) right.
The extensive report mostly focuses on areas of children’s health which are unlikely to raise much controversy such as accident and injury rates, incidence of disease and dental health. Some sections— such as those relating to childhood obesity and computer and TV ‘screen-time’— will inevitably be subject to greater debate.
However, the AIHW also highlights two crucial areas of concern— the high incidence of family joblessness and the extreme disadvantage faced by some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children—which have been the focus of recent research by the CIS.
Australia has the second highest proportion of children living in jobless households throughout the developed world. Compared to children of working parents, these children have worse health and developmental outcomes and are themselves at greater risk of becoming welfare dependent as adults. Most relative poverty among families is caused by parents not being in the workforce. With unemployment rising there is a danger that more families will be allowed to slip into long-term welfare dependency.
The AIHW also reports that, on average, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have higher infant mortality rates, higher rates of teenage pregnancy, worse dental health, higher levels of teenage smoking and smoking during pregnancy, and a higher rate of alcohol-related hospitalisations than the broader community. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are also more likely to live in a jobless family, are less likely to regularly attend school and have worse educational outcomes.
However, the AIHW report does not differentiate between those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children living in urban or rural areas and those living in remote communities: meaning it probably grossly underestimates the severe disadvantage faced by those in isolated locations where health services, schools and housing are extremely poor. A true picture of the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children will only emerge when the circumstances of those living in remote locations is considered separately to the wider community.
Jessica Brown is a Policy Analyst at the CIS and author of the report Breaking the Cycle of Family Joblessness.
