Indigenous babies are three times more likely to die in their first year of life, a doctors' lobby says.
The Australian Medical Association issued a grim report card yesterday on the health of indigenous children.
AMA president Rosanna Capolingua said F ''was too high'' a grade for some parts of Australia.
''If you're talking about kids dying, there's no pass rate for that,'' she said.
The study found low birthweight, premature birth, chest infections, accidents and injury were the greatest killers of Aboriginal babies.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the report reminded Australia that ''too many indigenous children are born amid inter-generational disadvantage''.
''This disadvantage can dull hope and curtail opportunity,'' she said.
The report also found fewer than half of Aboriginal pupils in Year 3 achieved the numeracy benchmark, and they were four times more likely to be abused or neglected before they turned 16.
Ms Roxon described indigenous health as ''one of the nation's great collective failings''.
While bleak, the AMA report praised the Federal Government's commitment to closing the 17-year life-expectancy gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.
The last report, issued in May 2007, lashed out at ''criminal underfunding'' and ''institutional racism''.
Dr Capolingua said the interim period had seen significant action, such as the Northern Territory intervention and ongoing funding.
''I can see some traction, so we have to embrace that and keep working towards leaving behind those statements that had to be made in previous report cards,'' she said.
Ms Roxon told the AMA president to expect ''very welcome initiatives'' when the Council of Australian Governments met tomorrow. When COAG last met in October, it set several targets for reducing the life-expectancy gap and pledged $564 million over six years to fund indigenous early-childhood health.
Dr Capolingua said it would be ''very interesting to see what emerges''.
The AMA's report card was launched at the Winnungah Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service in Narrabundah.
Dr Capolingua said the centre was a ''very successful model that can be extrapolated across the country''.
Winnungah's 11 doctors see about 80 patients a day, up from 10 or 15 two decades ago.
A doctor who has worked at the centre for almost 20 years, Peter Sharp, said its success relied on community control.
''One of the great things about a service like this is that indigenous people can have a sense of ownership,'' he said.
''They're not going to some other culture's service to get what they need, they're coming to something they own themselves, and with people they trust working there.''
Dr Sharp was supported by the AMA report, which called for a national network of mother-and-child-specific health services controlled by indigenous Australians.