Friday, 24 November, 2006

ABC NT Local News

The co-author of a report on Indigenous cancer rates in the Northern Territory's Kakadu region has hit back at a federal research body for trying to disassociate itself from the study.

The discussion paper says that people living in the area have a 90 per cent higher rate of cancer than would be expected for Aboriginal people in other parts of the Territory.

The Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders Studies (IATSIS) has issued a statement saying it did not commission the research.

But Colin Tatz from Macquarie University says the institute was supposed to put the report on its website last week.

He says the institute was also expected to hand it over to the national uranium inquiry.

"The institute has assured me that this is now going to go forward as a submission, a formal submission with the institute's backing, to Dr Ziggy Switkowski's task force," he said.

"He's asked for public reactions to his draft report on the nuclear industry, this is going as a formal submission."