Professor Ian Anderson is Director, Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit, Centre for Health and Society, School of Population Health, the University of Melbourne, and Research Director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health.

It is unusual for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues to get much attention in an Australian election campaign. This is not always a negative. The poor quality of public debate in this field – and the tendency to frame Indigenous issues by impressions rather than evidence and any expertise grounded in the real day-to-day world of Indigenous Australia – can make policy arguments problematic.

Following the Howard Govern-ment’s recent intervention in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities, and the Prime Minister’s recognition of his struggle to deal adequately with ‘this whole area’, Aboriginal Reconciliation is now back on the agenda.

However, the Prime Minister’s pledge to support a referendum initiative that makes reference to Indigenous peoples within the preamble of the Constitution is neither new nor in itself a significant symbolic gesture. This endeavour would be better bolstered by a commitment to broader constitutional reform, and the development of legal instruments that recognise Indigenous rights and provide for greater equity in health and other social outcomes.

Indigenous health will benefit from a commitment to health system reform that more generally is underpinned by values such as quality and equity. To improve outcomes for Indigenous Australians we need a policy commitment to the provision of effective quality health care services on the basis of need.

We must address as well the other social factors that impact on poor health – such as economic participation, education, housing and employment.

Investing in developing educational opportunities for Indigenous Australia is critical to a concerted effort in recruiting and retaining Indigenous students in the health sciences.

Significantly, we also need to broaden our policy focus from sickness care to prevention, particularly with respect to improving smoking cessation rates, levels of physical activity and diet.