00:00A crisis going from bad to worse. The latest data shows women and children are bearing
00:08the brunt of the lack of progress made in closing the gap. Life expectancy for women
00:13in the NT is worsening, with Aboriginal women dying 14 years younger than the Australian
00:19average. Nine in every 1,000 babies die due to perinatal conditions, and birth weights
00:26are getting worse as well. You do have those complex health needs when the baby's born
00:31which are compounded by lack of services, poverty, poor housing that's experienced
00:38by our First Nations communities. The Mollie Institute is working to improve outcomes through
00:43programs like Birthing on Country, pushing the importance of a strong start to life.
00:49A lot of the health problems that you see during pregnancy could be addressed by continuous
00:55care, early engagement with care. But when you have lack of trust and lack of continuity
01:00of care with a health care service, you don't see as much engagement. The Northern Territory
01:05only showed improvement in half of its Closing the Gap targets, including housing and land
01:11and sea rights. But incarceration and youth detention rates are only growing higher, partially
01:17due to policies of the government of the day. We're looking at how we can intervene in those
01:22kids' lives at a much earlier point so we can get them off the wrong track and get them
01:27into an environment where they're making good decisions. While the NT scrambles over how
01:32to get on the right track, the sector wants more action, less talk. Wake up governments,
01:38wake up those of you in political positions of power and commit to what you really need
01:43to be doing. It says you've dropped the ball, you've been asleep at the wheel. If the children
01:48of the future, the future is failing.
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