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SBS Australia
6 days ago
- Health
- SBS Australia
Queensland Health faces class action over allegations of systemic racial discrimination
Thursday Island Hospital is managed by Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service, which is facing allegations of racial discrimination in the class action. Credit: AARON BUNCH /AAPIMAGE A class action against Queensland Health has been launched in the federal court alleging systemic racism at two remote Hospital and Health Services. Litigators, JGA Saddler Lawyers, say there are clear breaches of the Racial Discrimination Act by North-West Hospital and Health Service (NWHHS) and the Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service (TCHHS). The NWHHS and TCHHS service 47 of Queensland's most remote communities, many of which have high populations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The case alleges that racial discrimination resulted in substandard health care being provided which in some cases, led to death. JGA Saddler director Rebecca Jancauskas said the team would examine healthcare provision over three decades as part of the lawsuit, from December 1996 to March 2025. She said evidence dating from this time shows instances of ongoing systemic racism. 'We've heard horrible, harrowing stories of people who've been turned away and who have suffered extreme outcomes as a result,' she said. 'Their health has suffered, and in some cases, they've passed away as a result of the care that has been doled out. 'We will say that this can very clearly be distinguished between allegations in terms of an overloaded or inappropriate health system. 'We say the evidence will show that this is racial discrimination.' Ms Jancauskas said while the lawsuit was based on experiences of racial discrimination, there was room to amend the case's scope, with allegations of negligence expected as well. Prominent human rights barrister Joshua Creamer has been engaged to represent the interests of the claimants. Earlier in the year Mr Creamer was involved in community meetings in the Torres Strait, which heard from community members on the matter. Mabuyag and Murray Island Elder Tassi McDonald recounted her experience working in health, opining that the system had changed for the worst. 'It's gone – the health system has gone flat – I see it in front of my eyes, because I'm an old health worker,' she said. 'There are more white nurses and white doctors.' Ms McDonald said she believed the Torres Model of Care, which allowed her to work out in community as an Indigenous Health Worker, functioned best. 'When I first started working, we were all about prevention and it's all curative now,' she said. 'Curative is different: when you're sick, you go down to hospital. I know that my people out there I see every day, they still need help. 'I feel for my people, that they still have more people dying.' Wakaid Tribal Council of Elders, who invited the lawyers to their community, say they are happy to work with them to interpret language. Wakaid Elder Robert 'Bongo' Sagigi, who has studied Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples, said Islanders had a right to 'free and prior, informed consent'. He called on the legal team to visit the outer islands of the Torres Strait where health issues are exacerbated by their remoteness. 'The lawyers have to go around to every island – [I told them], they got to do it, because we're talking about consent. 'Don't create things without consent and use data belonging to individuals to get money come through.' Queensland's Minister for Health, Tim Nicholls, said he would not comment on matters before the court, but emphasised that racial discrimination was unacceptable. 'I've met with a number of the mayors [and] they have been very clear to both the Premier and myself of the challenges that we face there,' he said. In recent years, both the NWHHS and TCHHS have been investigated in relation to their treatment of Indigenous staff and patients. Some of these reports already cite instances of Indigenous staff and patients who've experienced discrimination in those services. Mr Nicholls said he was awaiting an investigation currently underway into the cultural safety of the TCHHS processes, with a report originally slated for release in June 2024 now due in mid-2025. 'Once we've got that, we'll then look at what action needs to be taken,' he said. 'I think those two pieces of work which should be implemented will go a long way to helping address the issues. 'That implementation group, which the Director General has established, is all about moving to the implementation of those recommendations.' Interviews and feature reports from NITV. A mob-made podcast about all things Blak life. The Point: Referendum Road Trip Live weekly on Tuesday at 7.30pm Join Narelda Jacobs and John Paul Janke to get unique Indigenous perspectives and cutting-edge analysis on the road to the referendum. Watch now
ABC News
21-05-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Class action lawsuit accuses Queensland Health of racial discrimination in north Queensland
A class action lawsuit has been launched accusing Queensland Health of racial discrimination in facilities in two regional Queensland areas. The class action filed in the Federal Court on Tuesday alleges state health services discriminated against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients at facilities administered by the North West Hospital and Health Service and the Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service. North West Hospital and Health Service covers an area from Kowanyama to Urandangi and includes Julia Creek, Mount Isa, and Mornington Island. Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service covers the top end of the state down to Wujal Wujal, and also includes a number of islands in the Torres Strait. It alleged the state withheld or denied adequate healthcare to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients, while dismissing patient concerns. Rebecca Jancauskas, director of JGA Saddler who is representing the plaintiffs, said the actions alleged in the lawsuit amount to racial discrimination and should be addressed. "These hospitals and health services are alleged to have treated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients differently based on their race or factors that were closely associated to their race," she said. "The claim we've filed in the Federal Court alleges breaches of the Racial Discrimination Act." The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 made it unlawful to draw distinctions or exclude people on the basis of their race. Ms Jancauskas said her law firm had been meeting with patients alleging racial discrimination and elders representing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in the regions named in the suit. She said patients seeking medical attention at Queensland Health facilities were talked down to and given "substandard" care. "We've heard stories from elders and community representatives about them turning up to hospitals seeking treatment, complaining of debilitating, intense pain on repeated occasions," she said. "And they've been dismissed on the basis that they're probably under the influence of particular substances, or alcohol." Ms Jancauskas said the claim alleged Queensland Health had failed to address systemic racism for decades despite issues being identified in previous inquiries and reports. "Our claim period alleges that this conduct has been ongoing since December of 1996 and it spans right up until March of this year," she said. "If there was a simple, straightforward fix, I like to think that would have been implemented by now. "But unfortunately there's a bit more to it and we are talking about systems, procedures, beliefs, systems that have been entrenched for decades, and it has sadly resulted in conduct that has gone on for far too long." Robert 'Bongo' Sagigi is a First Nations elder in the Torres Strait community on Badu Island, and believes the state government should meet with the community on their terms to discuss the current state of the Queensland health system. "The director generals, and all the mob down there, sitting in an office in Brisbane, they don't know what's happening on the grassroots level," he said. Mr Sagigi also previously called for a reinstatement of the Torres Model of Care, which he said has been functionally dismantled. He said the lawsuit was "wake-up call" for the state government to address what he called "systemic racism" in the system. "Listen, listen, listen, government. Listen to us because they asked us to vote for them and when they get in, they forget about us," he said. "The democracy that we're practising has been thrown out the window." Queensland Health declined to comment.
News.com.au
20-05-2025
- Health
- News.com.au
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders launch a class action against Queensland Health over racial discrimination
Queensland Health have been hit with a class action over allegations of racial discrimination that claim Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people received inadequate healthcare spanning three decades. The class action alleges First Nations people were withheld or denied adequate treatment, had their concerns dismissed and received substandard medical care, which was unlawful and breached the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth). Litigators JGA Saddler filed the class action on Tuesday on behalf of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were subject to discriminatory conduct by the North West and Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Services between 1996 and 2024. JGA Saddler director Rebecca Jancauskas said the state needed to be held accountable for systematic practices that resulted in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who interacted with certain healthcare providers in Queensland receiving a lower standard of healthcare. 'We've heard heartbreaking stories of First Nations patients being ignored, misdiagnosed, or dismissed in ways that would simply not happen to other Australians,' she said. 'This case is about ensuring those voices are heard, and change is made. 'No one should be treated differently in our hospitals because of their race.' Ms Jancauskas said the claim alleged the State of Queensland failed to take sufficient action to address concerns about systematic racism in hospitals and health services over 30 years despite investigations and inquiries identifying these issues. She said there were examples of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who had sought medical care from public hospitals and health services in the North West and Cape regions but been repeatedly dismissed, which the case alleges led to children dying. 'This has sadly been the experience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have sought medical care from public hospitals and health services in these regions,' she said. 'This case goes beyond individual harm. It challenges a pattern of institutional racism that continues to impact the health and lives of First Nations people across Queensland.' Litigation Lending Services chief executive officer Susan Wynne said they were funding the class action to seek justice on behalf of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were failed by Queensland Health. 'Every Australian has the right to access healthcare free from discrimination,' she said. 'For too long, complaints of racism in the public health system have been minimised or ignored.'
