Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Recently I had the privilege of attending the University of Queensland Ipswich Campus, where I met with Robert Bush PhD, Professor of Community Health Research, and Dr Kathryn Ahern, from the School of Nursing and Midwifery. The University of Queensland Ipswich Campus is the location of the Healthy Communities Research Centre, which was established in September 2007 and is an international hub for community health research. The centre arose in part from a population health profile of the Ipswich and West Moreton Division of General Practice, and I commend former CEO Kevin Pitman, who had the foresight to seek Australian government funding for that study, which was conducted by the Public Health Information Development Unit at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. The study established that the socioeconomic status of the Ipswich and West Moreton area was lower than Brisbane’s and also lower than the Australian average. There were more single-parent families and a high proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, full-time secondary education participation was lower and more households were receiving rent assistance. Health indicators also showed the local community was more disadvantaged in terms of respiratory system diseases, asthma, circulatory system diseases, diabetes, injury, mental and behavioural disorders, musculoskeletal system diseases, obesity and overweight generally. Sadly, also, the number of smokers was much higher and people were more physically inactive.

As a result of that study, the Ipswich Hospital Foundation decided to strengthen the focus of research in the local area and, with the participation of the University of Queensland, came up with the idea of the Healthy Communities Research Centre. It will carry out a longitudinal study that will be known as the Ipswich Study, examining health related projects and the interface between the various determinants of health using both longitudinal and comparative methodologies. It will be looking to integrate what should be done in terms of future growth in communities. This is being done because Ipswich will grow faster than any other area in South-East Queensland. Because it is also an area of low socioeconomic status, it is a perfect laboratory for this kind of study. People at the Healthy Communities Research Centre are very excited about this prospect because Ipswich is a mixture of urban, rural and cultural communities, with substantive changes taking place. So this rapidly changing environment will be the perfect catalyst for this type of study.

Professor Bush said recently that the Ipswich study can become the hub around which an international centre for research on community health can be built. But, of course, it needs support. I am pleased to say that the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Queensland has provided funding of $300,000 to employ a research fellow for the study, Dr David Marshall, who joined the centre in July this year. However, the study also needs the support of the local community, not just of the council but of other partnerships, business and local, individuals and community organisations, churches, charities, the RSL and sporting and other community groups. It needs sufficient funding, both federal and state, as well as from the University of Queensland.

The study will go a long way to assist the objectives of the state government’s South-East Queensland Regional Plan to secure well-designed, safe and healthy local communities. It will also encourage active community participation in these types of events, because we have to plan things properly. We have to plan our hospitals, our health services, our roads and our schools. Just south of where I live, 120,000 people will live in the Ripley Valley in the next 20 years. We have got to plan properly, and we need the research to be able to do that. The Ipswich Study is very important for this reason. I urge the local community, including the local council, to get behind this study. This is worthwhile and will create an international hub for future development. It will be great for South-East Queensland and great for Ipswich.