Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to support the Australian National Preventive Health Agency Bill 2010. Before I do so I would like to congratulate the member for Lyons on the well-presented views and thoughts he placed on the record in this place. Australians are living longer, and that is a good thing, but there are still too many among us dying before their time or growing old with chronic illnesses that quite simply can be prevented. We have a responsibility to use the knowledge we have gained through the best medical research from Australia and around the world and, in the case of preventable disease, to actually prevent it. I rise today to speak on this bill because it is a groundbreaking initiative to help make us a healthier nation.

We all grew up with the truism that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We have all heard that, yet for too many years we have dealt with health issues after they have developed. The Australian National Preventive Health Agency, as the name suggests, is going to dramatically change that culture and address chronic preventable health problems before they start. The benefits of this approach are first and foremost about our health. But there are also economic benefits. A healthier nation, particularly a healthier ageing nation, is a good thing for the economy. People work longer, which makes them more productive and greater consumers. They require less medical assistance and less hospitalisation.

18:22:05

As Chair of the Standing Committee on Health and Ageing, I am very encouraged by this long, long overdue and welcome shift in our approach to preventive health care. The combination of an ageing population and a rise in the incidence of chronic illness makes this sort of approach essential to a healthier Australian population. It has been identified by many groups, such as the Health and Hospitals Reform Commission and the National Preventative Health Taskforce, and was a significant proposal to come out of the 2020 Summit.

We have some very obvious health issues relating to cigarettes, alcohol and obesity, to name just three. But despite their transparency, we are too often striving to fix a problem that should never have developed in the first place. Certain facts cannot be argued with or ignored. For example, a quarter of all cancer deaths in Australia are a product of smoking and alcohol abuse. Smoking leads to the premature deaths of hundreds of thousands of Australians. One in four Australians is at short-term risk through drinking and one in 10 at long-term risk. Again, Australia is one of the most obese nations on earth.

These are preventable problems, yet they cost this nation dearly on both a deeply personal and an economic level. Despite these facts, we currently spend less than two per cent of our annual health budget on preventive measures. When you consider that our preventive health problems add up to a lot more than two per cent of all health issues, that just does not make sense. It is not the right thing to do from a medical perspective, and it is certainly not sound economics. This bill addresses that anomaly with a commitment of well over $800 million towards preventive health care. It is a massive, unprecedented investment in Australia’s wellbeing.

Just as there has been a concerted and highly successful push to reduce smoking in this country, we need to deal with the problem of obesity. A report to the Standing Committee on Health and Ageing revealed that obesity cost the Australian economy almost $8 billion last year alone. Consider that fact from a purely economic standpoint—$8 billion. Obesity leads, as we heard earlier, to an increase in diabetes, cardiovascular disease and complications associated with surgery and other interventions. It affects people of all ages, it affects people of all ethnic backgrounds and it affects people in all socioeconomic areas, and it can be prevented.

Preventive health measures and their impact on the ageing have an even greater bearing on the people in the electorate I represent. Hindmarsh, in Adelaide’s west and south areas, is one of the oldest electorates in Australia, with more than 20 per cent of residents aged over 65. These are people who have worked hard all their lives to enjoy their retirement or to stay in the workforce longer, and preventive health reforms will help them achieve that. Many older Australians, in particular, suffer from illnesses and conditions that could and should have been prevented. They do not need to have a terminal condition for their quality of life to be severely affected or to be in a position where they can no longer walk or even have a part-time job.

The Gillard Labor government has made a genuine commitment to preventive health care. It is a major priority, and it is a major key focus of our reform agenda. For example, a national preventive health system will bring enormous advantages to Australia in the future and help develop a culture where people think about prevention first and cure second.

This bill has been rejected by the opposition, sad to say—it has already been rejected, in October of 2009. The opposition has also resisted the prevention of poor health that results as a direct consequence of the absence of adequate dental care. The opposition’s position of washing its hands of the onset of preventable conditions and the distress, decreased productivity and loss of freedom that comes from not having good health is sickeningly predictable and an affront to all Australians who value the wellbeing of our families, friends, neighbours and workmates.

The government has, over recent times, made unprecedented investments in infrastructure that will enable the Australian economy to grow with more strength well into the future. The government has also made unprecedented investments in our secondary and especially our primary education system, advancing all primary schools’ capital works programs in ways the schools thought would never, ever happen.

The government intends to similarly invest in Australians’ lives—in their wellbeing as maintained through good health and the avoidance of preventable disease. Any objection to such an objective—the pursuit and maintenance of the good health of our fellow citizens—should invoke the disgust of all of us and deserves our utter contempt. Nothing is clearer than the merits of avoiding problems before they occur. So, I commend the bill to the House.

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