Aboriginal academic walks out Tuesday 9 May 2000 A leading Aboriginal advocate yesterday walked out on a surgeons' conference, saying she was "sick of hearing it's not possible to help the darkies". Professor Marcia Langton, foundation chair of Australian indigenous studies at the University of Melbourne, accused doctors of perpetuating a culture of hate against indigenous people which contributed to their Third World health status. Professor Langton said the Australian Medical Association's policy of capping the number of bulk-billed services that could be offered Australia-wide was preventing Aboriginal people in remote areas from accessing health care. At the end of her address she clashed with a surgeon in the audience who said it was "an absolute lie" that the AMA capped bulk-billing and there were other "untruths" in her speech. Earlier she told the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons' annual scientific meeting that hatred and irrational fear of Aboriginal people was still having an impact on the delivery of health services. Doctors trained in the city had little knowledge about the kinds of illnesses they would encounter in Aboriginal communities, including leprosy and tuberculosis, she said. AAP -- ********************************** 'Click' to protect the rainforest: Make the Rainforest Site your homepage! http://www.therainforestsite.com/ ********************************** ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
