The native infant mortality rate is falling and will soon be equal with the non-native rate by the year 2018, according to a new report.

The report was launched in Melbourne on Wednesday.

NIHEC chairman Ian Anderson said, “In 2018, we expect we will have halved the child mortality rate and certainly halved the infant mortality rate. That's very good news and it gives me great pleasure to be able to stand in this place and talk about good news in Aboriginal health, because we don't get enough of that”.

13.5 out of every 1000 Australian indigenous children died when they were only one year old, according to the report. The difference between indigenous and non-indigenous mortality rates came down from 9to 5.6 out of every
1000.

The indigenous infant mortality rate will fall to four children dying out of 1000, if the same trend continues till 2018, which is almost equal to the already predicted non- indigenous rate of 3.9 of every 1000.

The sole reason for the falling infant mortality rate is the ante-natal and post-natal health services for indigenous mothers and children.