INTERVIEW: Could a First Nations voice help tackle stubborn public health challenges?

Nearly two years after the failed referendum saw a First Nations voice to parliament shot down, some NGOs and state governments have been taking the initiative to follow the wishes of the majority of Indigenous communities in Australia who voted for this special representation. Australia's principal non-government organisation for public health, the Public Health Association of Australia, has announced they will be instituting an Aboriginal and Torres-Strait Islander voice to help guide their work after a near unanimous vote by their members. SBS spoke to Dr Summer May Finlay, a Yorta Yorta woman, an Associate Professor at the University of Wollongong and the Vice President (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) of the Public Health Association about the importance of a First Nations voice in helping to Close the Gap on healthcare outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians