Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to sum up debate on the Australian National Preventive Health Agency Bill 2009. The introduction of Medicare by Labor in 1984 provides a lasting legacy for Australia: we have a health system with a wonderful foundation. It is not just something that those in the Hawke Labor government are proud but also something that we are very proud of to this day. I hope the establishment of the Australian National Preventive Health Agency will also provide a lasting legacy. But after a decade of idleness and neglect by the coalition, where it squandered the benefits of the resources boom, underfunded public hospitals and left the health workforce to atrophy, our health system is in definite need of reform to deal with the issues of the 21st century.

The Rudd government has an ambitious three-pronged reform agenda. First, the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission has reported to the government its 123 recommendations for reforming the acute hospital system in particular but with reference to the interrelationship with aged, dental and primary care and the need for a much greater focus on preventative health to keep people out of hospital. Secondly, the Minister for Health and Ageing released the draft of Australia’s first National Primary Healthcare National Strategy in August. The draft strategy sets out the building blocks and priority areas for modernising the delivery of front-line health care. Thirdly, in September the minister released the final report of the National Preventative Health Taskforce. With its initial policy priorities of tobacco, alcohol and obesity, it makes a detailed series of findings and recommendations on its prescription for making Australia the healthiest nation by 2020. A key part of its recommendations is the establishment of an infrastructure to guide, oversee and build the evidence base for ever more effective preventative health measures. The Australian National Preventive Health Agency is this infrastructure.

The government has already shown leadership in preventative health, demonstrated by the unprecedented $872 million COAG commitment. The establishment of the Australian National Preventive Health Agency will embed preventative health thinking and action permanently as an enduring institution into the future. Too often in the past individuals, communities and governments have focused on the issues of treating people after they have become sick. To put it another way, for far too long we have focused on the need for an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, not a fence at the top. The work of the new agency will help make our health system more sustainable. It will boost Australia’s productivity through a healthier workforce that can contribute more to the growth of our economy. Most important of all is the reduced human cost: it will ensure that we have longer, healthier and happier lives. This is a reform of which the Minister for Health and Ageing and I are very proud. The minister and I would like to thank the many public health agencies, like the Public Health Association of Australia, who have been so supportive of the establishment of the agency.

There is strong consensus that we need to bring together the best expertise in the country and we need to engage employers, businesses, other sectors and the wider community in prevention. I would like to thank all the honourable members who have made contributions to this debate. The member for Dickson raised three issues. First, will the agency become intrusive in future? The agency’s role is to provide the best available evidence not just to federal and state health ministers but indeed to all Australians. The Australian people deserve the best available information and evidence to assist them in making their lifestyle choices. This is not intrusion and it is not directive. It is empowering them to make informed decisions. Secondly, he drew a very long bow and tried to make a connection between spending on social marketing to promote health whilst we are making savings by making cataract payments better reflect the true cost. He called this duplicitous. To say you are for preventative health but against acting on it is duplicitous. The comparison is false. What the member for Dickson wants us to do is take money away from stopping people getting sick and put it straight into the pockets of ophthalmologists, so letting people get sicker to make eye surgeons richer.

The National Preventative Health Taskforce makes it clear that social marketing campaigns do make a difference, particularly when the campaigns are coupled with a range of comprehensive range of programs to underpin the message. Social marketing campaigns in relation to smoking, drink driving and seat belts spring to mind. We have also funded the Don’t Turn a Night Out into a Nightmare campaign as one part of the multitiered national binge drinking strategy. This agency will be a component of the COAG $872 million preventative health package.

Thirdly, the member for Dickson talks about a lack of engagement with industry. This is not correct. In fact, the CEO of the Australian Food and Grocery Council was on the task force, and I would like to thank Kate Carnell for her effort and contribution. Business and industry have been consulted by the task force. The agency will have an advisory council and, while the bill is not prescriptive about business representation, the explanatory memorandum does note that this may include business.

The member for Pearce raised two issues. Firstly, will the outcomes of the agency be measurable? I would respond by pointing out that the CEO will be responsible to the Australian Health Ministers Conference for performance against agreed triennial strategic and annual operational plans. Secondly, she notes that the government has not yet responded to the national prevention task force. The Prime Minister and the Minister for Health and Ageing are currently road-testing the recommendations of the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission in conjunction with the recommendations of the task force, and we will respond comprehensively via COAG later this year. However, this is a recommendation we are keen to proceed with now so that the agency can be established by January 2010 and commence its very important work.

As the Minister for Health and Ageing noted when the bill was introduced, the agency is a COAG mandated body that is being established to support all health ministers—federal, state and territory—in tackling the complex challenges posed by preventable chronic disease. The agency’s role will be to provide evidence based policy advice to health and other ministers interested in preventative health and to administer social marketing programs and other national preventative health programs which it may be tasked with by the health ministers. The agency will also have responsibility for stakeholder consultation and overseeing surveillance and research activities. In carrying out its roles and responsibilities, the agency will help make our health system sustainable in the long term and help ensure that Australia does not go backwards in health status.

It is important that the bill is passed in the spring sittings to allow the agency to commence operations on 1 January 2010 and start benefiting all Australians. The minister and I would also like to thank all of those who have directly or indirectly been involved in the development of this very important legislation. The minister and I look forward to seeing Australia’s agency operation changing Australia’s health for the better into the long term.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.

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