"These health indicators are not only a national scandal, they are an international scandal when compared to recent health advances in indigenous populations in other first-world countries," the two groups said in a report on what they said was a crisis facing Australia.

Australia's 460,000 Aborigines make up two percent of the 20 million population. They have consistently been the nation's most disadvantaged group, with far higher rates of unemployment, alcohol and drug abuse, and domestic violence.

The report said Australia ranked last among first world countries New Zealand, Canada and the United States for life expectancy among indigenous people.

While Australia's Aborigines died nearly 20 years younger than other citizens, in other countries the figure was seven years. For infants, the mortality figure was three times the rate of non-indigenous Australians.

Aboriginal male life expectancy was 59.4 years, compared with 76.6 years for most males. For indigenous women, life expectancy is 64.8 years compared with 82 years for other Australian women.

The situation was preventable if the government spent more on Aboriginal health from a A$13 billion 2007/08 budget surplus, the report said.

In his budget Costello outlined more visits to Aboriginal homes by health professionals, new and upgraded health clinics in remote areas and more efforts to combat drug and alcohol abuse.

"This budget falls way short of what's needed to save lives," National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organization Treasurer Justin Mohamed said.

The report followed a World Health Organization study this month suggesting Aboriginal health in Australia was 100 years behind the rest of the population in quality.

"Leprosy, rheumatic heart disease and tuberculosis haven't been experienced in white populations for decades, but they are still problems for some indigenous communities," WHO researcher Lisa Jackson Pulver said.

Australia's conservative Prime Minister John Howard believes Aborigines must focus on "practical" ways to improve opportunities, rather than symbolic debates over land rights and sovereignty based on the situation before European settlers arrived in 1788.

($1=A$1.21)

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