Indigenous health needs more money: report

That's the verdict from the Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee, in its damning report card on the lack of progress made by federal and state governments in the past decade towards achieving life expectancy equality by 2031.

The aim was one of seven targets in the Closing the Gap Strategy drawn up to improve the plight of indigenous Australians, after prime minister Kevin Rudd's historic apology to the stolen generations in February 2008.

But the steering committee - a coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and advocacy groups - says the federal government strategy has all but fallen apart and a "refresh" is needed.

While life expectancy for indigenous Australians has improved since 2001, non-indigenous men and women live about a decade longer.

Part of the problem in failing to reduce the gap, the report says, is the "myth" that dedicated spending on indigenous health is a waste of taxpayer funds.

It says increased spending on indigenous health shouldn't be a surprise given Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have between two and three times the health needs of other Australians.

However on a per-person basis the government spends only about a third more on indigenous people than other Australians, with much of that money invested in the wrong areas, rather than in primary care and Aboriginal community-controlled services.

"The Close the Gap Campaign believes no Australian government can preside over widening mortality and life expectancy gaps and yet maintain targets to close these gaps without additional funding," the report said.

"While funding levels for indigenous health care is expected to grow over the next four years, it will not be of the magnitude to support equality of opportunity in relation to the underlying matters that will make a long term, sustainable and positive difference to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health - primary health care and health infrastructure."

The report makes seven recommendations, including for the government to fund the 2015 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan Initiative as well as a complementary mental health program.

It calls for indigenous leaders to be involved in the "refresh" of the Closing the Gap strategy, which the steering committee wants expanded to address the underlying causes of indigenous health problems, such as poor housing.

The report's release comes on the eve of a COAG meeting where Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his state and territory counterparts will discuss refreshing the Closing the Gap strategy, amid fears only one of its seven targets will be met.

Close the Gap Campaign co-chair and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, June Oscar, said state and territory governments need to do more to address the "national shame" of inequality.

"No more finger pointing between governments," she said.