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$ 10 million booster for Indigenous health news
05 Financing HE Rising course fees a worry for all
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EDITOR Antonia Maiolo 02 9936 8618 antonia. maiolo @ apned. com. au
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Philanthropist couple provide gift to help close gap in life expectancy. By Antonia Maiolo
Businessman Greg Poche and his wife, Kay, have given a $ 10 million gift to the University of Melbourne to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health professionals in developing policy to close the life expectancy gap.
The couple has now donated more than $ 40 million towards improving health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The latest gift by Poche, the founder and former owner of Star Track Express, will go towards establishing the University of Melbourne Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, joining a network of Poche centres, including at the University of Sydney, Flinders University and the University of Western Australia.
Despite recent improvements for Indigenous Australians, it appears that more needs to be done. For Indigenous people born between 2005 and 2007, life expectancy is estimated to be 67.2 years for males and 72.9 years for females – 10 – 11 years less than non-Indigenous Australians.
“ Improving the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians is one of our nation’ s biggest challenges and it is vital that we do everything we can,” Poche said.
Reg Richardson, a long-time friend and philanthropic adviser to Poche, approached the university with the idea of setting up the centre, which focuses specifically on leadership in health for Indigenous people.
“ I just said to Greg,‘ Let’ s have a crack at Indigenous health,” Richardson said, after discussing the life expectancy figures with his close friend.“ It’ s disappointing when you see that [ Indigenous ] people still live a long way less than we do. That’ s a massive injustice in my view.”
Richardson said the donation would enable the centre to employ Indigenous people as mentors, advisers and teachers – to help them become leaders in their communities.
“ In the last two years, about a dozen positions in Indigenous health have gone unfilled because they haven’ t found the people with the qualifications to do them,” he said, explaining that the people the centre employed would earn qualifications and become forces within their home towns, applying what they learn in the community for decades to come.
Shaun Ewen, associate dean of Indigenous development in Melbourne University’ s faculty of medicine, dentistry and health sciences, said Poche’ s donation would enable the institution to develop the future generation of Indigenous health leaders.
“ To make real, long-term gains in Indigenous health, we need leadership from highly skilled, wellqualified Indigenous people who are able to mobilise action and build an agenda for change in their areas of health practice,” Poche said.“ The mission of the University of Melbourne Poche Centre for Indigenous Health is to develop the next generation of Indigenous leaders who will influence the strategic directions of institutions, be mentors for emerging Indigenous leaders, build enduring partnerships and influence the health outcomes of Australia so that the gap in health status between Indigenous and other Australians is closed.”
Ewen said,“ The Poche’ s generosity, their trust in the University of Melbourne( and the three sister centres) to deliver on their gift, and the requirement to nurture and establish relationships to ensure the gift does what it sets out to do.”
He said the donation would enable long-term planning to deliver on the vision in the next five years and beyond. But he added that whilst philanthropy is growing in Australia, enabling us to do things we couldn’ t otherwise do,“ it can’ t and it mustn’ t replace core funding”.
In addition to training programs, the centre will provide support for those undertaking their PhD qualifications and postdoctoral fellowships. Along with the Melbourne faculty of medicine, dentistry and health sciences, it will aim to achieve 20 new PhD enrolments in health by Indigenous people by 2020. ■
4 | campusreview. com. au