Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to speak on the Australian National Preventive Health Agency Bill 2010. This is tremendous legislation before the parliament and we should be very proud of the minister for bringing it to the parliament. Like the previous speaker, I am appalled that the opposition, the Liberal and National parties, are opposing this legislation. The bill seeks to focus and revitalise Australia’s preventive health capacity. It also extends the period of the agency’s strategy plan to cover a five-year rather than a three-year period and explicitly mentions programs related to obesity and to alcohol, tobacco and other substances of abuse as being included in the scope of social marketing campaigns to be undertaken by the agency.

In 2008 the government reached agreement with the states and territories through COAG, among other things making historic investments in Indigenous health but also in prevention, and part of the agreement in prevention was to create the agency and commit funding to it, with an investment of over $130 million for its establishment, preventive health research and social marketing campaigns. And it was not going to be just a poster and T-shirt campaign or another calendar; it was real substance by this government and by the COAG ministers.

Preventative health is an area to which this government has given the highest possible priority. The government has committed $872.1 million over six years from 2009-10 under the COAG National Partnership Agreement on Preventive Health. This is the largest single commitment to health promotion by an Australian government. There are a range of initiatives under the Preventative Health Strategy targeting the lifestyle risk factors of chronic disease, including: settings based interventions in preschools, schools, workplaces and communities to support behavioural changes in the social contexts of everyday lives, and focusing on poor nutrition, physical inactivity, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption, including the scourge of binge drinking, which probably every member has in their electorate; social marketing aimed at obesity and tobacco; and the enabling infrastructure, including the agency.

The agency is part of the government’s broader health reform agenda and was recommended in both the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission’s report, released in July 2009, and in the final report of the Preventative Health Taskforce, released in September 2009, based on good solid work. In response, the government released Taking Preventative Action in May 2010, outlining the government’s preventive health initiatives. There is a rising incidence of chronic illness. Combine this with an ageing population and the sorts of lifestyles we have been leading, and we have a very explosive health situation, in terms of cost of dealing with illness, the hospital system and, in very personal terms, the impact that illness has on people’s lives in both cost and productivity.

This bill establishes national infrastructure to help drive major change in the way we deal with our health. Most people want to do something about their health, especially if it affects the way they look and feel. But the knowledge is just not there to develop a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. The National Preventative Health Taskforce stated that if obesity trends are left unchecked the life expectancy for Australian children alive today will fall by two years by the time they are just 20. The National Partnership Agreement on Preventive Health will invest $872 million for prevention, in particular with a large emphasis on tackling obesity through workplaces, local governments and programs targeted at children.

It will take all levels of government and all sorts of cross-agency programs to deliver this outcome. It is a great opportunity for our nation. We must ensure that Australia moves forward in health delivery. Success in changing lifestyles takes a long time, a systematic approach informed by the latest evidence and ongoing evaluation of results—getting away from the public relations exercise of the poster and T-shirt, as I mentioned earlier. It needs engagement, action and responsibility to be taken by individuals, families, communities, industries and businesses.

But we believe government can play a leadership role by gathering, analysing and disseminating the best available evidence and implementing programs and policies based on that evidence. We need to bring together the best experience in the country and we need to engage employers, businesses and the wider community in this preventative health debate. A new approach is needed. It needs to be the responsibility of everyone to ensure their families, their households and their communities are moving towards healthier outcomes. And it must include information. This must include clarifying what is contained in our processed food, so food labelling becomes vitally important. It also means that we need to know how our individual bodies work. Going to the doctor should not just be when you are sick; it should also be for advice when you are well, so he or she, the deliverer of primary health care, can ensure you stay well.

Some of the examples I have observed in my communities over the years have been working towards this. At a fun day some years ago at Rosebery, a mining town that is no longer in my electorate sadly, there were giveaway crib boxes full of healthy fresh food for the children to encourage sensible eating—fitting into their community life, as dad takes a crib off to the mine each day. It was very sensible and a very good initiative. Schools and the parents and friends organisations have been keen to improve and to provide healthy foods in canteens at schools for many years now. I am sure you, Madam Chair, would have been interested in that over the years. There should be plenty of choice of healthy foods available to encourage good eating, particularly in the teenage years.

We must start here. I noted that the Prime Minister participated in a walk to work to her office the other day. Maybe we should re-evaluate our hours of work in this place to allow more exercise and stimulation. Being in here at 7 am and leaving at 10.30 pm or later does not allow much attention to health issues! When I mention to people who have worked in the health sector—a few medicos and others in this area—they all agree that we are not setting a very good example. Available food in the building should indicate its food value so that we can make those good choices.

Local government needs to be encouraged to put value on such infrastructure as walking tracks, swimming pools and permanent exercise equipment—outside activities that encourage participation by both the fit and unfit. Local swimming pools must be upgraded or built in areas that do not have them already. It can be done in conjunction with schools or aged person facilities, or as part of local government activities programs. At the moment local government has no incentive to keep pools going for health outcomes. Yet a pool can be used as part of local competitive swimming early in morning, by the oldies for some healthy and warming activities during the day to overcome arthritis through movement programs, along with rehabilitation after accidents or operations, and then by youngsters for recreation and at other times for learn-to-swim or other activities. Swimming days can encourage the whole community to participate.

Talking of swimming pools, I had a meeting recently with a famous Australian, Shane Gould. She is an Olympic gold medallist who is now living in the good electorate of Lyons. She is doing some work on swimming pool use and design and the issue of people’s swimming activities. She said that we have to change the design of swimming pools to fit the needs of particular communities. Swimming pools are not just for people to swim up and down. Some of my community are also trying to deal with the costs of swimming pools. We need to find new business models so we can find ways to pay for our swimming activities.

All activities should be encouraged by putting more information on signage, like the lengths of walking tracks. I understand that, if you put a time on a walking track and where it goes to, 50 per cent more people will actually use that track because they feel comfortable about it. The degree of energy required to participate in the activity could also be included on signage. There is a whole range of things that we can put on interpretive signs within our communities. We also have to learn about how our bodies work under strain.

School sports and physical education should be put firmly back into the curriculum with resources to run them. Help for programs such as Little Athletics and swimming lessons may need to be reconsidered as well. We must encourage youngsters to join sporting clubs and participate in whole-of-club activities, with the less fit being encouraged to support their teams through important activities such as maintaining the scoreboard or equipment until they are fit enough to be involved.

I have mentioned food labelling as part of these comments, but we also need to look at food advertising under the truth-in-advertising legislation. We need to look at school vegetable gardens from kindergarten up—and the previous speaker mentioned the Stephanie Alexander program, which has been a great program for focusing on growing food and the nutritional value of that food. We also need to ensure that health and food education extends through the whole education process, much like literacy and numeracy do now. Then there is the slow food movement, which encourages us to know how what we eat affects us and to give ourselves time to prepare and eat healthy foods. We must not let this program become elitist. It must be affordable for everyone and must not impinge on the day-to-day budget. It must help change the way people use their food budget or their entertainment budget. Those are some of the goals and aims that can come out this movement.

I am very encouraged by this. For the first time since I have been in this parliament I have seen major change on really tackling health issues in a proper, constructive and strategic way. This is the biggest opportunity we have ever had to change the way we do things. Australians can lead the way in being responsible for our own health, so that we can cut down illness costs, both personally and to the community. It is the only way to do it and I fully support the intention of the bill. I look forward to supporting the bill when the vote comes on and I am extremely disappointed that the Liberal and National parties are opposing this bill. I think they are really failing the people of Australia.

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