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The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has advised that:• While the life expectancy estimates presented here are the best that can becompiled with currently available data, it is not possible to present time-series ortrend statistics for Indigenous life expectancies.• Variation in life expectancies between Indigenous males and females and forIndigenous Australians in different states and territories should be interpretedwith care as they are sensitive to the demographic assumptions and differentialquality of data across jurisdictions.State and Territory breakdowns should be interpreted with care. At present, theABS can only publish, with confidence, individual jurisdiction Indigenous lifeexpectancy estimates for Queensland and the Northern Territory. In order toproduce more reliable estimates, the ABS combines data for Victoria with NSW andSA with WA (giving two pairs of geographically nearby jurisdictions). Due to acombination of poor data quality and small numbers, estimates have not beenproduced for Tasmania and the ACT (for these jurisdictions the ABS suggests usingthe NSW/Victoria estimates) (ABS 2004a; 2004b).The calculation of national Indigenous life tables using conventional direct methodsis not possible due to the absence of complete and consistent (over time)identification of Indigenous status in death registrations in all six states and theACT. Consequently, the ABS does not publish time series of Indigenous lifeexpectancy. (Indigenous identification in deaths data for the NT has been muchmore accurate since the 1960s — research on mortality over time in the NT isreported later in this section.)Table 3.1.1Estimated Indigenous life expectancies at birth, 1996–2001 a, bSexNSW andVictoriaQueensland SA and WA NT AustraliaMale 60.0 58.9 58.5 57.6 59.4Female 65.1 62.6 67.2 65.2 64.8a For Tasmanian and ACT estimates, use NSW/Victorian data. b Data are subject to a degree of uncertaintyand apparent differences in life expectancy estimates between jurisdictions may not be statistically significant.Source: ABS (2004b); table 3A.1.1.• The ABS estimates that, for both males and females, life expectancy at birth inthe Indigenous population is 17.2 years less than in the total Australianpopulation (table 3.1.1, figure 3.1.1).• The life expectancy of Indigenous males born between 1996–2001 is 59.4 yearscompared with 76.6 years for total males born in a similar period (1998–2000),3.4 OVERCOMINGINDIGENOUSDISADVANTAGE 2007