The NSW Aboriginal Health Plan 2024-2034 is our most ambitious yet. Achieving the outcomes identified in this plan will enable Aboriginal people in NSW to achieve the highest levels of health and wellbeing. We acknowledge the only way this can be achieved is by sharing power between Government and the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health sector at the highest levels of decision making. This will be key to the system reform that will drive innovative collaborations between our health workers and with Aboriginal people and communities.
Enabling Aboriginal people to make the decisions that impact their health and wellbeing is our government’s priority. By listening to Aboriginal people in our workplaces and community, respecting their expertise, and acting on their advice, we will accelerate progress towards Closing the Gap on the health and health related outcomes that this Government has committed to achieve.
Key to this progress is our government’s commitment to embedding cultural safety and eliminating racism across all levels of the health system and our community more widely. We all have a role to play in recognising and addressing inequities that Aboriginal people and communities continue to experience as a result of racism. A health system that is culturally safe and a society that is free of racism will go a long way to ensuring the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal people for generations to come.
This plan is about growth, transformation and sustainability. It will guide how health systems are planned, delivered, and monitored to improve health and wellbeing outcomes. However, while we all plan for better outcomes, it is only through action that there will be change. My challenge to everyone across the health system is to find the opportunity to make a difference in your day to day lives and in your work, to implement the transformation needed to achieve the vision of this plan.
The Hon Ryan Park MP Minister for Health, Minister for Regional Health and Minister for the Illawarra and the South Coast