PM fulfils indigenous community promise

Weeks before his instalment as the nation's leader, Tony Abbott declared if indigenous communities were good enough for their people, they were good enough for the prime minister.

As proof, Mr Abbott will travel this week to the Torres Strait Islands, delivering for a second time on his pre-election promise to spend one week a year in a remote indigenous community.

The prime minister touches down on Sunday evening, bringing with him the machinery of government and about eight ministers.

His trip to the northern-most tip of Queensland and the islands sprawled above it will focus on education, health, defence and communities - themes visited during his trip to Arnhem Land's Nhulunbuy in September last year.

Mr Abbott will be hoping to complete the week, after having to cut his week in Nhulunbuy short to bid farewell to Australian troops bound for Iraq to combat Islamic State.

War threatens to also overshadow the prime minister's second indigenous community visit after he received a formal request from the United States to join air strikes in Syria.

However, Mr Abbott says a decision on that is not expected for a few weeks.

The Torres Strait is the birthplace and resting place of Eddie Mabo, the man who paved the way for indigenous land rights in a landmark High Court case that led to native title.

It is also home to Australia's second indigenous people, whose culture more closely aligns with the Melanesian people of Papua New Guinea than mainland indigenous Australians.

Federal government MP Warren Entsch, whose electorate of Leichhardt covers the Torres Strait, warns against mixing islanders in with Aboriginal Australians.

"They're very, very different; they're culturally totally different to Aboriginal people, in every sense of the word," he told AAP.

It is not the first time a prime minister has visited the Torres Strait Islands, but Mr Entsch says it is the first time residents have had an extended period of time to interact with the man who runs the country.

"A lot of the issues that happen in remote areas tend to be overlooked," he said.

"It will give (Mr Abbott) a better understanding of the cultural differences as well because it's important he recognises that one hat does not fit all.

"It's not only their Melanesian culture that sets Torres Strait Islanders apart from mainland Aboriginal people. The region also has a unique set of issues - some rarely seen further south."

With Saibai Island sitting just four kilometres from Papua New Guinea, border security, rare disease, people smuggling and movement of drugs and guns are a constant battle.

"People are dying every day from tuberculous, encephalitis, leprosy, cholera, malaria," Mr Entsch said.

"And they're right next door, you can actually see them. They visit us every day."

The federal government recently boosted border protection resources in the Torres Strait, but the vastness of the area makes patrols challenging.

The Queensland and federal government jointly committed $26 million last year to repair damaged seawalls that encase many of the islands and protect the residents from rising sea levels.

But Mr Entsch says progress is slow and he worries there are not enough residents involved to enable them to fix it next time.

"Because, if they know how to fix it, and they do the bloody work, they can then repair it and we can ensure we have an extended life," he said.

Constitutional recognition is expected to feature high on Mr Abbott's agenda, after the prime minister last week agreed to hold a series of indigenous-only conventions to discuss a way forward.

Mr Abbott will be in the region until Friday.