I acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples as the traditional owners of Canberra, and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.

But of course, as well as that acknowledgment let us commit ourselves to a constitutionally enshrined voice of Australias first peoples throughout this country to this building.

I want to acknowledge Lowitja Chair Pat Anderson AO, CEO Janine Mohamed, Greg Hunt, other Members of Parliament, and other staff and members of the Lowitja Institute who are here tonight.

And although she is not here this evening. I want to acknowledge your first chair and Patron, Lowitja ODonoghue: the first Indigenous nurse in South Australia, and the first Indigenous woman to be awarded an Order of Australia.

Shes a great Australian. I know shes not in great health, thats more, not less reason to acknowledge and honour her. As an aside, perhaps you will permit me to say I always thought Lowitja would make a fine Governor-General for our country, and I think its a pity for Australia that she was never invited to serve in that capacity as she would have done so with great dignity.

Im delighted to be here this evening on behalf of the Opposition to support and advocate for the critical and respected role the Institute plays as part of the Australian health system.

Of course, there are many medical research institutions which play a vital role in reducing the gap of indigenous disadvantage in Australia. I know the Lowitja Institute works closely with them.

We need all of their work, and value all their work.

But Lowitja plays a unique role as the only Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research institute that is self-determining and solely concerned with the research needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. And the constitutional changes that are in the process of being implemented enhance and cement aboriginal control, which is very welcome.

The institute has transformed research done on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to research led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, for and with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Over 150 scholarships including 62 PHD scholarships awarded by Lowitja have strengthened and built the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research workforce in Australia.

Your high impact research, tools and resources have, and will continue to drive positive health outcomes for Australia's First Peoples.

Importantly your research is built on priorities identified by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Tomorrow, in the House of Representatives we gather and lament that we have not made the progress we promised we would 12 years ago, to eliminate the gap in life expectancy by 2031.

The work of Lowitja will be absolutely vital if we are to close the gap, as we absolutely must do. Lowitjas strategic plan to 2023 is a very useful and worthy roadmap.

An important element of the new strategic plan is Priority Five. I want to spend a second or two on it. To create a perpetual funding base for Lowitja Insititute The Institute needs more than words of support. It needs funding which is secure, stable and certain. And certainly, from my point of view as the alternative health minister, that is what I would intend to provide.

The Institutes research has examined the impact of racism on health, childhood skin infections linked to chronic kidney disease and rheumatic heart disease, the future of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island health research and ensuring best cultural practice on research for difficult topics such as genetics.

Im also struck by the Institutes first comprehensive assessment of how the burden of disease and injury affects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the national guidelines for best practice clinic care for a range of ailments.

And beyond the value of Lowitjas research, the Institute has been able to tell us how to implement innovations in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, how to develop and trial integrated models for Aboriginal health promotion, and how to close the policy implementation gap.

The Lowitja Institute has truly brought together the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector, government health agencies and research institutions to ensure that research conducted into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health is controlled by and benefits Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

And it is in Lowitjas strategic plan and vision of the future that we can get this done.

We in this building need Lowitjas research, to build on priorities identified by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We in this building, need Lowitja to drive positive health outcomes for Australia's First Peoples.

We all know the extent of the challenge. Let me just share with you a few of the facts and figures that have stood out to me, and stayed with me, in time so far as Shadow Minister for Health :

• 94 per cent of vision loss in Indigenous Australians is preventable or treatable, and that vision loss alone accounts for around 11 per cent of the gap in health outcomes between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other Australians
• Our Indigenous community suffers from stillbirth at higher rates than the broader population, in fact 42 per cent higher; and
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth, are 14 times more likely to die by suicide than other young Australians.

But we know there are much broader issues underlying these challenges.

I was particularly struck by a quote from your Chairperson, Pat Anderson. Pat said:

"Those of us who have worked on the frontline of Aboriginal health for any length of time know that beneath the surface reality of Aboriginal people's poor health outcomes sits a deeper truth. It is about the importance of social and emotional wellbeing, and how this flows from a sense of control over one's own life. Where this is lacking, as it is in so many Aboriginal families and communities, there is instead indifference and despair and a descent into poor lifestyle choices and self-destructive behaviours.

We know from overseas experience, including the health outcomes of native Canadians, the Inuits, that communities which have a sense of ownership, control and hope have better health outcomes, and in many instances much lower suicide rates, so Pats comment is very pertinent.

And so this evening is an opportunity to support the Lowitja Institute and all its work. As important as it has been in the past, I think it will be more important in the future.

Lowitja will have the Australia Labor Partys full support as it looks to the future.