Maari Ma Health Aboriginal Corporation has renewed calls as a matter of urgency for a new government approach to address high lead levels in Aboriginal children in far west New South Wales.

The call comes after the Far West Local Health District released the latest report into lead levels in Broken Hill children.

The report showed that more than 700 children aged one to five years attended for blood lead screening in 2024.

Of those children tested, 26 per cent were Aboriginal and 68 per cent of those children had blood lead levels above the guideline, compared to 35 per cent of non-Aboriginal children screened.

Maari Ma CEO, Richard Weston said it’s not acceptable to see this significant discrepancy year after year.

“We are not seeing any change even though we have been working with Aboriginal children under five years of age for many years providing lead testing, health education and intensive multidisciplinary case management.

“We’ve said time and time again there needs to be a new and targeted approach for Aboriginal children and families as part of the broader community program.

“While we’ve been accessing more Aboriginal children and working with families to provide the initial and ongoing testing and whatever treatments that may be required, it’s clearly not enough.

“The gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children’s lead levels remains unacceptably high and we urgently need to look at new ways to address this.

“We have recommended for a long time that the community program here in Broken Hill has a greater focus on Aboriginal children as it is Aboriginal children who are carrying the greater burden of high lead levels in Broken Hill.

“We have also been recommending that the government focuses on housing as there’s a strong link between blood lead levels and the quality of housing in Broken Hill for Aboriginal families.

“We are asking the NSW Government to act now and treat the unacceptably high level of lead in Aboriginal children in Broken Hill as a high priority Closing the Gap issue that needs to be addressed with intense action and a greater sense of urgency than we’ve seen to date.” Mr Weston said.

This article appeared on Back Country Bulletin on 21 July 2025.