Indigenous Environmental Health Coordinating Committee (IEHCC)

The Indigenous Environmental Health Coordinating Committee (IEHCC) was established in 1995. The committee brings together State, Commonwealth and Local Government agencies, which have joined forces to tackle the sub-standard environmental health conditions in many of Western Australia's Indigenous communities.

These poor environmental health standards are seriously affecting the health of Indigenous people, particularly children. The mortality rate among Indigenous infants in Western Australia four times the national average for the mainstream population and the longevity rate is almost 20 years less than that of other Australians.

Membership

The IEHCC consists of the following key government agencies:

Department of Indigenous Affairs (Secretariat)
Department of Housing and Works
Department of Health (Chair; both the Office of Aboriginal Health and the Environmental Health Directorate provide members)
Department of Local Government and Regional Development
Department of Water
Office of Energy
Fire & Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia
Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing
Commonwealth Department of Familes, Communities and Indigenous Affairs
Western Australian Local Government Association.

The IEHCC goals are now being addressed as well by two Senior Officer’s Groups, established under bilateral agreements with the Commonwealth Government in 2005 and 2006:

the Sustainable Environmental Health and Infrastructure (SEHI) Senior Officer’s Group (SOG), established in 2006 under the Bilateral Agreement on Indigenous Affairs 2006-2010
Housing Senior Officer’s Group (HSOG), established under the the Bilateral Agreement on Housing, Infrastructure and Essential Services 2005-2008. The IEHCC assists and advises these two SOGs on environmental health matters where appropriate.

Strategic Framework for co-operation and liaison

Until the formation of the IEHCC, Commonwealth, State and local government agencies often worked in isolation from each other. The IEHCC addressed this historical impasse by bringing together the major government agencies responsible for environmental health programs and service delivery to better coordinate services for Indigenous communities in Western Australia.

The IEHCC supports the goal of eliminating sub-standard living conditions in Indigenous communities by seeking to raise the basic living standard necessary to achieve long-term, sustainable improvements in Indigenous health. It provides:

an avenue to discuss program priorities, to identify opportunities for cost-saving and to avoid duplication through better collaboration on specific projects, as well as to develop and pilot new projects
a means of identifying common barriers to service delivery and of developing appropriate responses to ensure better delivery
the potential to negotiate the involvement of key regional stakeholders and to enable them to liaise effectively via co-ordinating bodies (IEHCC, ACESSC, ATBC and various Senior Officer Groups and those based in the regions

This dynamic and innovative framework allows agencies to work together towards a common purpose, to reduce and then eliminate the sub-standard living conditions too often experienced in Indigenous communities.

Note that the Indigenous Environmental Health Coordinating Committee (IEHCC) was renamed in late 2005 from the former Environmental Health Needs Coordinating Committee (EHNCC).

Key achievements

IEHCC Contacts

IEHCC Publications