Mr ENTSCH —My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and Family Services. Is the minister aware of claims that government budget decisions might have an adverse impact on Aboriginal health? Is there any basis for such claims?

Dr WOOLDRIDGE —I thank the honourable member for his question. There has been a lot of interest in Aboriginal health in recent weeks, as there always is, with comments by the Fred Hollows Foundation, by Mandawuy Yunupingu and also by the member for Dobell on Sunday.

Let me make a few comments about Aboriginal health. The first is that the budget, overall, is very positive for Aboriginal health. The Aboriginal health specific budget was not subject to any savings; in fact, the efficiency dividend is being ploughed back into new Aboriginal health services. There are 200 Aboriginal communities in Australia without any access to health whatsoever, even the most basic nursing post. We will be able to address 35 of these communities' needs because of decisions in the budget.

We have also allowed Aboriginal medical services to have access to Medicare billing. Not all did. This provides an income stream that many of them did not have. We announced funding for the third national HIV-AIDS strategy. This will run from 1997 to the year 2000. Within that, Aboriginal sexual health will be taking a greater priority. I have had discussions with organisations interested in HIV-AIDS matters. They accept that it is time that Aboriginal people got a greater access to this funding.

There are a number of other initiatives that will specifically benefit Aboriginal people. The diabetes action plan that we promised before the election will be implemented. It will affect Aboriginal people because they have a particularly high rate of diabetes. We are trying to get GP and specialist services into rural and remote areas. We committed $215 million to that in the budget. That will help Aboriginal people. We have a joint initiative with the AMA, which is very well progressed, to try to get specialist services into rural and remote areas.

I would not want to see Aboriginal health just in terms of money, because we would be making the mistakes of the past if we thought that was all it was. One thing I have been working very hard on is framework agreements with state and territory governments. I was able to announce to the House a couple of months ago that we had signed the first one with South Australia. I have now signed five such agreements, with South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, the ACT and Queensland, the last being on Friday with Victoria. I am confident that we will soon have every state and territory in the country signing these agreements. Of themselves they are not going to make a dramatic difference, but they are an important building block to make sure that two things happen. The first is that all tiers of government are trying to work in a coordinated manner. The second thing is that we bring Aboriginal medical services and ATSIC in around the table as part of the joint planning process so that never again do we get the overlap and duplication that have bedevilled this area.

I would say to the honourable member that the task is still immense, that honourable members should reflect that in 1996 there are still 380 Aboriginal communities with no access to running water and there are still 200 Aboriginal communities with no access to a health service, no matter how rudimentary. The task is not an easy one. It has had many overblown hopes before. It is certainly not something I want to do. I would say to the honourable member for Dobell and to any other member of this House that if they have serious ideas as to how we can do more and how we can make a greater impact, I make the offer that I am very keen to hear from them. I would be happy to make my department available. In the end, this is something in which, if we can all work together in a slow, hard slog, we might make some improvement over time.