New findings published in the Medical Journal of Australia, show major improvements in controlling infectious diseases among indigenous people.
But conditions like heart disease and diabetes - which are usually caused by lifestyle factors such as diet - are increasing, and contributing to drastically shorter life spans.
Dr Louis Peachy of Queensland's James Cook University says health policy is based on outdated assumptions, and a fundamental shift is needed to tackle chronic diseases.
"And the reason why infectious disease is controlled is because that has a possibility of spreading to the rest of the community."
Dr Peachy says; "With chronic disease there isn't a motivation, because it doesn't impact on the rest of the community to have people dying of non-infectious or non-communicable disease 20 years younger than everyone else."