The latest closing the gap data reveals rates of imprisonment, suicide and children in out-of-home care continue to worsen. Nationally, only four of the nineteen targets look likely to be met. That is one less than last year, with women and children among those affected the most.
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00:00A crisis going from bad to worse. The latest data shows women and children are bearing
00:08the brunt of the lack of progress made in closing the gap. Life expectancy for women
00:13in the NT is worsening, with Aboriginal women dying 14 years younger than the Australian
00:19average. Nine in every 1,000 babies die due to perinatal conditions, and birth weights
00:26are getting worse as well. You do have those complex health needs when the baby's born
00:31which are compounded by lack of services, poverty, poor housing that's experienced
00:38by our First Nations communities. The Mollie Institute is working to improve outcomes through
00:43programs like Birthing on Country, pushing the importance of a strong start to life.
00:49A lot of the health problems that you see during pregnancy could be addressed by continuous
00:55care, early engagement with care. But when you have lack of trust and lack of continuity
01:00of care with a health care service, you don't see as much engagement. The Northern Territory
01:05only showed improvement in half of its Closing the Gap targets, including housing and land
01:11and sea rights. But incarceration and youth detention rates are only growing higher, partially
01:17due to policies of the government of the day. We're looking at how we can intervene in those
01:22kids' lives at a much earlier point so we can get them off the wrong track and get them
01:27into an environment where they're making good decisions. While the NT scrambles over how
01:32to get on the right track, the sector wants more action, less talk. Wake up governments,
01:38wake up those of you in political positions of power and commit to what you really need
01:43to be doing. It says you've dropped the ball, you've been asleep at the wheel. If the children
01:48of the future, the future is failing.