Why do inequalities exist in the health of australians

The proportion of the Australian population living below the relative income poverty line fell from Around 5 per cent of Australians were deeply socially excluded in each year between and Various data sources show income and wealth inequality exists in Australia, but there is less agreement among analysts about whether inequality is worsening, improving or staying at around the same level over time.

This article examines how income and wealth inequality is measured in Australia and the impact of the tax and transfer system in re-distributing income from wealthier to poorer households.

Analysis is also provided of relative income poverty and broader measures of disadvantage. Household income consists of:. Equivalised disposable household income is used to enable more meaningful comparisons of income between different household types. It is defined as gross household income less tax that has been adjusted using a weighting process to account for household size and composition. For example, children have a lower weighting in recognition that they require fewer resources than adults.

Figure 1: equivalised disposable household income per week by percentile, —08 and — Note: Data for the 95th percentile is customised ABS data. Figure 1 shows the differences in income per week received by households at the top of each percentile or tenth of households in —08 and — In other words, those in the top 5 per cent of households received almost five times as much income as those in the bottom ten per cent.

The Gini coefficient is the internationally accepted summary measure of inequality. Estimates for the Gini coefficient for equivalised disposable household income can range between zero where all households have exactly the same income and one where one household has all the income.

Values closer to zero represent higher income equality and values closer to one represent higher inequality. Figure 2: Gini coefficient for equivalised disposable household equivalised income, —08 to — While the ABS has been producing estimates for the Gini coefficient since —95 it cautions against comparing estimates from —08 onwards with earlier estimates due to the improvements made to measuring income introduced in the —08 cycle.

Stronger growth in incomes for those in the bottom 30 per cent of the household income distribution compared with the top 30 per cent since —08 may have contributed to the reduction in inequality. Figure 3 shows the growth or decline in income per week received by households in percentage terms between —08 and — It shows income growth was strongest for the bottom 10 per cent of households up Figure 3: growth in equivalised disposable household income per week by percentile, —08 to — This longitudinal survey of 17, Australians has been undertaken since The data shows the Gini coefficient for household equalised income has been relatively stable over the 15 years to , ranging between 0.

One of the reasons for the difference could be the broader definition of income used by the ABS. Household net worth or wealth is the stock of financial and non-financial assets held by households less their liabilities. Household assets can include:. Liabilities of households usually take the form of loans outstanding that include mortgages; borrowing from other households; investment loans; credit card debt; and personal and study loans.

Figure 5 shows household wealth or net worth tends to be more unequally distributed than household income. The goals of managing country, conserving biodiversity, maintaining culture, providing employment and training and improving the diet of remote communities coincide in the Kuka Kanyini project.

The project is a local community- government partnership funded by the South Australian Department of Environment and Heritage and the APY land management.

Watarru has a seasonal population of between 60 and people and is located in an extremely remote part of the APY Lands.

It is a lawfully strong, proud and socially cohesive community, generally free of problems like petrol sniffing and domestic violence that occur elsewhere on the APY Lands. However, despite these positive points, a visit to Watarru by staff members of HREOC in noted high rates of diabetes and other chronic diseases self-reported by community members.

There was a limited range of foods stocked at the Watarru community store. Convenience foods high in saturated fat and sugars are often the preferred foods by community members. Land management is an integral part of the project. This includes maintaining the traditional pattern of fire management regimes that helps minimise the impact of accidental fires that can otherwise devastate the local mulga woodlands from which foods grubs, mistletoe fruit, honey ants, mulga apples and seeds and pharmacopeia are found.

Fire also is used to encourage regrowth of foods preferred by kangaroos and emus that assist Anangu when hunting. It also includes the control of populations of feral rabbits, foxes, camels, and cats that have had a significant impact on the population of small sized native mammals in the region.

Feral camels and horses also foul and damage water sources that native animals rely on and compete with the community for several plant food-sources and are of high cultural significance. To date the project has exceeded expectations. It continues to employ a minimum of 12 people on a full time basis, increasing the level of self esteem and valuing the 40, years information base of the local people to assist western science.

By combining contemporary and traditional skills the local people are now able to best manage the land. To date, the increase in the physical activity by participants has assisted in the control of diabetes. The guaranteed wage ensures that people are now saving for large items and buying healthy foods. The increase in self- esteem is obvious with the younger people wanting to participate; young men in particular seek to working with camels and learn fire skills as these are considered prestigious occupations.

The poverty and inequality that they experience is a contemporary reflection of their historical treatment as peoples. The inequality in health status that they continue to experience can be linked to systemic discrimination. Racism is a stressor that has been reported to affect both mental and physical health.

A review of 53 studies in the United States found a decline in mental health status as racism increased Eight out of 11 studies found links between the elevated prevalence of high blood pressure in Afro-Americans and racism There have been very few studies on the impact of racism on the health of Indigenous people in Australia, although experts agree that a correlation with the US studies is to be expected It reported than This was associated with increased smoking, marijuana use and alcohol consumption in these unders The practice has intergenerational health impacts.

The WAACHS reported that the effect on parents was that they had higher rates substance abuse and mental health problems. Their children were twice as likely to have emotional and behavioural problems, to be at high risk for hyperactivity, emotional and conduct disorders, and twice as likely to abuse alcohol and drugs.

Indigenous women are particularly vulnerable to intersectional discrimination within criminal justice processes due to the following reasons:. There is a consistent pattern indicating that incarcerated Indigenous women have been victims of assault and sexual assault at some time in their lives. There was also a strong relationship between incarceration and experiences of violence, drug and alcohol abuse, with Indigenous women often entering custody with poor physical or mental health, and at higher risk of self harming when in prison and also soon after release from prison.

As a consequence, the rate of Indigenous women being imprisoned has increased most rapidly in Australia since Indigenous women also experience extremely high rates of recidivism. In consultations to identify solutions to address this situation, Indigenous women emphasised the importance of healing to address grief and trauma as a major priority. Strategies need to respond to the circumstances of indigenous women holistically, which seeks to not only address offending behaviours but also focus on healing the distress and grief experienced by many indigenous women and their communities.

Text box 3 below contains a case study of a program that attempts to help heal the trauma experienced by survivors of the Stolen Generation, Indigenous women prisoners and other Indigenous people. Sacred Site provides grief and loss counselling services to Indigenous people, as well as making presentations and conducting training with government departments and community organisations on the effects in Indigenous communities of unresolved grief and trauma.

Sacred Site was established due to concerns that mainstream counselling services were not appropriate in addressing the grief and loss of Indigenous people. An underpinning belief of the Sacred Site program is that Indigenous peoples' unresolved grief is a major contributing factor to the range of social and health issues which exist in Indigenous communities today.

Overall, Sacred Site attempts to assist Indigenous people understand their grief and loss in a holistic sense which includes the effects of colonisation.

The program also aims to assist people working with Indigenous people to understand issues of grief and loss. In , Australia commenced a formal process of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation made its recommendations to the nation in Methods: We used data from a survey of 10, Australian women aged 53 to 58 years. We modelled the association between socio-economic status and health service use--GPs, specialists, hospital doctors, allied and alternative health practitioners, and dentists--adjusting for health status and other confounding variables.

We quantified inequalities using the relative index of inequality RII using Poisson regression.