The Wire

The Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader today signed up to a pledge to close the 17-year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians by 2030. Prime Minister Rudd has also promised that within a decade Indigenous Australians will have health services as good as the rest of the population. Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma said it was tremendously significant that both parties had signed the pledge and that every peak health body in Australia had also enthusiastically agreed to the targets.