The Board and Members of the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory (AMSANT) recognise and acknowledge Pat Turner AM on the occasion of her retirement. Throughout her long public life, she has made an extraordinary contribution to self-determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and to the life of the nation.
For the last decade, Pat has been the CEO of our national peak body, the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO). In this role, she has advocated for our sector with strength, principle and passion. She played a lead role in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the importance of Aboriginal community-controlled health services in protecting our diverse communities. This saw the death rate from the disease actually lower for our peoples than for mainstream Australia.
She was also central to the formation and work of the Coalition of Peaks in 2019, which renegotiated the National Partnership Agreement on Closing the Gap, putting Aboriginal community control and power sharing at the heart of government policy.
AMSANT wishes Pat Turner a long and happy retirement and looks forward to continuing to work with Dr Dawn Casey as the new CEO of NACCHO.