Indigenous people are the most disadvantaged group in Australian society.
Reliable statistics demonstrate indigenous disadvantage very clearly. About 11 percent of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population aged 15 years and over have never attended school. On average, indigenous unemployment is three times the national average and incomes are less than two thirds those of other Australians. A child born to indigenous parents will, on average, live 20 years less than a child born at the same time to parents of the wider community. Aboriginal mothers are 10 times more likely to die during childbirth than other mothers in Australia.