On the final day of the Uluru convention on a referendum for Indigenous constitutional recognition, former prime minister Kevin Rudd spoke about Indigenous disadvantage since his National Apology to the Stolen Generations in 2008. "Twenty thousand kids were suffering from trachoma back then at about a 20, 25 per cent rate. We're now down to about four per cent," he said. 

In saying that 20,000 kids were suffering from trachoma, Mr Rudd appears to have used data for the number of children living in communities judged to be at risk of having endemic trachoma. The number of children estimated to have trachoma in 2009 was about 3,000. His rate of 20 to 25 per cent "back then" is supported by a prevalence figure of 21 per cent contained in a 2008 report. However, the rates for 2007 and 2009 were each 14 per cent, and the report for 2009 cautions about the reliability of the 2008 data. 

Rates of trachoma among Indigenous children in at-risk communities have declined steadily since 2009. The claim that rates have fallen to about four per cent is supported by recent reliable data.

Verdict: Overstated