Next Time You Hear Something About Aboriginal Health Remember This....

Mr Lingard said last night he was concerned high prices were being charged for basic food items to prop up takings, even though most of the shops ran at a loss. (Being Government run they are not meant to make a profit but provide a very important service to remote areas)

Aborigines, many surviving on social security payments, had been forced to pay up to $6.00 for a 2 litre container of milk and $3.00 for a loaf of bread in remote Cape York Communities. Mr Lingard said he wanted to drop the prices of basic food items, including fruit and vegetables, in the six shops administered by the state.

Health Minister Mike Horrin, who discovered the high prices while visiting Cape York last week, (Further down is reference to a study of prices done as recently as March) described the situation as "an impenetrable barrier" to improving Aboriginal health (Seems to me that it would be one of the major contributing factors to poor aboriginal health!)

He said he believed some of the prices were the highest in Australia (I bet they are!), partly due to the cost of transporting goods to the remote settlements.

Mr Lingard said he ordered his department to prepare a report after he visited Aboriginal communities three weeks ago.

The Government has sought expressions of interest from companies to buy the shops but was concerned a private operator would sell only profitable items, such as soft drinks and sweets. "A private company mightn’t bother supplying pharmaceutical goods, for example, which you would probably lose money on," he said. We have to make sure the range of goods is still available (There is no doubt that a private company would only be interested in making a profit. If these shops are operating at such huge losses what deals would the government be making with these private companies to make such a transaction worth while?)

The shop at Kowanyama, near the cape’s west coast, was charging $5.85 for a 455g jar of vegemite, $5.37 for a 500g block of cheese and $9.00 for a 5 kg bag of flour last week. Prices are higher during the wet season when transport becomes more difficult.

A Queensland health study in March found the highest prices were being charged in Aurukun Community Incorporated.

A Queensland Health spokeswomen, who is undertaking a two-year project to improve food supplies, said examples had been uncovered of fruit and vegetables grown on the Atherton Tablelands being transported to Brisbane, before being carted back to Cairns to be shipped around Cape York (Once again through the inefficiency of us white people to do a simple thing as supplying local produce to local shops Aboriginal health will suffer).

Mr Horrin said community councils should be encouraged to grow fruit and vegetables (up there who is he kidding. He must not have got out of his air-conditioned limo while visiting recently) but Mr Lingard said past farming attempts had failed due to the extreme heat and massive rain falls experienced on the Cape.