More than 125 health organisations – including leading eye organisations – have supported the Voice to Parliament in an open letter published in this week.
Australia will hold a referendum on Saturday, 14 October this year about whether to change the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing a body called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
Vision2020, The Australian College of Optometry, The Fred Hollows Foundation, Indigenous Eye Health Unit, Sight for All, and Glaucoma Australia are signatories to the letter, which says the proposed Voice will “enhance government decision making about matters that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, ultimately improving health outcomes”.
“We speak as leading health and medical organisations who spend our professional lives dedicated to caring for all Australians… we witness firsthand the disparity in health outcomes between non-Indigenous Australians and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,” the letter reads.
“we witness firsthand the disparity in health outcomes between non-Indigenous Australians and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples”
“Despite the best efforts of successive governments at all levels, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples continue to have an average life expectancy gap of 8.2 years compared to other Australians.
“The Voice is an opportunity for us to make a practical difference, to ensure the gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non- Indigenous Australians does not continue to widen,” the open letter reads.
“Just as a good clinician listens to their patient, a Voice to Parliament is about listening to the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.”
