Outlining the opposition Labor Party's direction in health policy, this presentation describes a 'long-term vision for health' in rural Australia. Issues considered include: removal of duplication and inconsistencies between different levels of government in order to use limited health resources for patient based health services; Indigenous health; the importance of health promotion; and the prevention...

The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) provides a weekly child health clinic in the remote Indigenous community of Kowanyama, on Cape York Peninsula. The RFDS runs a playgroup as part of the program. This paper describes the establishment of the playgroup program, its goals, the challenges faced, the strategies used to tackle them and the...

The Conference's 18 priority recommendations are presented. Two of the issues have been included in each of the nine biannual conferences. This Conference agrees that Indigenous life expectancy is still unacceptably low, and that there is still insufficient focus in national health research efforts on rural and remote communities.

In Australia access to health services is influenced by various factors, including geography, availability of expertise, and a range of cultural, social and economic factors. This paper describes the establishment of Bila Muuji, a network of autonomous Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services in the Bourke-Walgett region that work together to overcome some of these obstacles...

People living in rural and remote Australia, and particularly Indigenous Australians, have much poorer health and inferior health services than other Australians. This presentation briefly explores the issues of an ageing rural population and its associated health demands, the incidence of depression, lack of access to health care and difficulties in retaining health care professionals...