Health chief wants more regional control

The former chair of a Queensland health council has called for more Indigenous control of affairs in regional areas.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people overwhelmingly want more local and regional control of their affairs, according to

Matthew Cooke, the outgoing chair of the Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council (QAIHC) wants Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people given more local and regional control in decision making, investment and employment.

Mr Cooke, in an interview with Marie McInerney at the QAIHC annual members’ conference, asked the newly re-elected Federal Labor Government to be bold, and called on the Queensland Government to fairly re-invest the $300 million put aside for the now repealed Truth-telling and Healing Commission and Path to Treaty.

He also urged a stronger partnership between the sector and Queensland’s Hospital and Health Services.

“For the community controlled health sector in Queensland, we find ourselves in a challenging environment at the moment,” he said.

“We’ve seen a recent federal election that had an overwhelming return of the Albanese Labor Government, and late last year we’ve seen the change in the Queensland Government to the Crisafulli Liberal National Party Government.

“What we’re seeing is challenges still around the long term investment and reform to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities. We’re hearing lots on the National Agreement to Closing the Gap, we’re hearing lots about policy efforts.”

But he said there was a lack real investment to make sure that these opportunities were lasting.

“We disagreed with their decision taken on the withdrawal of the Treaty process and the Truth- telling Commission itself, but we still held the responsibility to work with them if we’re serious about closing the gap and ensuring that they play their vital role as government,” he said.

“They made a commitment prior to the election that if they won government and repealed the Treaty legislation and the Truth-telling Commission, that they would recommit that $300 million (allocated for those processes) to our people and communities, and that’s still yet to fully materialise.”

Mr Cooke called on the Queensland government to work with Indigenous organisations to “co-design solutions for our communities”.

You can watch the full interview here: