MEDIA RELEASE: ASO Calls On Government Support To Close The Indigenous Eye-Care Gap
10th October 2025
AUSTRALIANS are losing their sight, and First Nations communities are being left behind.
The Australian Society of Ophthalmologists (ASO) is calling on the government to urgently address the widening gap in eye health, as new figures reveal First Nations people are still three times more likely to experience vision impairment and six times more likely to suffer moderate vision loss than other Australians.
Released ahead of World Sight Day, the Australian Eye and Ear Health Survey, prepared by the Centre for Vision Research, Westmead Institute for Medical Research, on behalf of the AEEHS Consortium, reveals that despite measurable progress, eye health outcomes for First Nations peoples continue to lag far behind the national average, particularly in remote and regional communities where access to ophthalmic care is limited.
According to the Survey, 10.9 per cent of Indigenous Australians live with bilateral vision impairment, compared with 3.8 per cent of non-Indigenous Australians. Blindness rates have remained unchanged since 2015 – 16, at 0.4 per cent for Indigenous and 0.2 per cent for non-Indigenous people.
Remote areas recorded the highest prevalence, with up to 15.8 per cent of residents affected. The leading causes, uncorrected refractive error, cataract, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma, are largely preventable or treatable through early detection and timely surgery.
While cataract surgery coverage among Indigenous people has improved from 61.5 to 87.6 per cent, the Survey warns that remoteness, workforce shortages and short-term funding cycles continue to limit access to equitable care.
ASO Vice President Professor Ashish Agar works in Indigenous communities in western NSW with the Prince of Wales Hospital’s Outback Eye Service, the successor to Professor Fred Hollows' pioneering work in the 1970s.
“It’s unacceptable that we still have such high rates of vision loss, over 25 years after I first had the privilege to serve our First Nations people,” he said.
“Our biggest concern now is the epidemic of diabetes. This can cause retinopathy or bleeding at the back of the eye and is emerging as the single biggest threat to vision in relatively younger Australians, especially from Indigenous communities.”
“The tragedy is that most of these cases are avoidable. We don’t have to see current and future generations burdened with losing vision from diabetes,” he said.
Prof. Agar welcomed the report, which he believes highlighted a clear and urgent need for continued investment in both preventative health as well as outreach programs.
ASO CEO Katrina Ronne said the Survey findings should prompt urgent national reflection.
“We cannot accept preventable blindness as an inevitability of geography or heritage. Every Australian deserves the right to see clearly, no matter where they live,” Ms Ronne said.
“The ASO is calling for long-term, stable funding to keep services contributing to the ongoing wellbeing of First Nations communities alive, because whether or not you can see should never depend on a postcode.”
For more than a decade, the IRIS program, originally created by the ASO, has bridged the distance between First Nations patients and specialists, providing culturally safe eye surgery and treatment in regional hospitals and outreach clinics across northern Australia.
Since 2021, IRIS has delivered nearly 1,000 cataract surgeries in the Northern Territory alone and is responsible for majority of procedures performed in remote areas.
Vanguard Health CEO Tim Gallagher, who oversees the delivery of the IRIS program, said the results speak for themselves.
“Every time IRIS visits a remote town, we see lives transformed. The backlog shrinks, the waiting lists shorten, and people regain their sight, often within days,” Mr Gallagher said.
“But these improvements will disappear if support dries up. Sustained funding is essential to keeping the momentum going.”
To view the full survey, click here.
Media Contact:
Ellie Fink
Media & Communications Coordinator
Australian Society of Ophthalmologists (ASO)
M: 0456 100 659
W: asoeye.org
For more information FULL REPORT