James Bidgood (Dawson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Will the minister outline to the House the importance of the preventative health reforms agreed to by COAG at the weekend?

Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Dawson for his ongoing interest in health issues and particularly for his interest in prevention. On the weekend we saw huge new investments in our hospital system. We have mentioned these in the House already, but there will be $4.8 billion going into our hospitals. There will be a sustainable indexation rate, money going into emergency departments, money going into elective surgery, money going into workforce reform and a significant investment in closing the gap for Indigenous people.

What has not received so much attention yet is our commitment to prevention and our determination, as we indicated before the election, to engage in serious discussions with the states and territories to deliver a partnership on dealing with prevention to tackle the long-term pressures on our health system and our workforce. The Prime Minister mentioned yesterday the importance of making sure we take these decisions early because of the long-term trends that we need to turn around, whether they are the growing rates of chronic disease or the staggering 676,000 preventable admissions which end up in our hospitals each and every year. This could be prevented if we invested more in prevention—a deal that we did over the weekend with the states and territories.

$872 million over six years is going into prevention. This is the single largest investment in preventative health that has ever been made by an Australian government. Much of that funding is going to go directly to programs. The sorts of programs include healthy children initiatives to provide health programs targeted at kids and schools, preschools and childcare centres, including healthy-eating and physical activity programs, and healthy workers initiatives to provide programs which reach into our workplaces, including smoking cessation programs, information about the health risks caused by excessive alcohol consumption and support for employers to provide programs which improve the healthy weight of their workforce. These initiatives will aim to reach 35 per cent of the Australian workforce—that is 3.8 million workers—over the next six years.

Also, as well as these initiatives targeting kids and workers, there are initiatives targeted at communities to support improved physical activity and nutrition in around 115 local government areas, especially those that are socioeconomically disadvantaged, over the next six years. The partnership will also extend the successful Measure Up campaign that I launched recently in Canberra. I understand that a number of my colleagues have been using a tape measure around their waistlines.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Rudd interjecting

Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was not looking at you, Prime Minister! We want to make sure that the Measure Up campaign is targeted to particularly include at-risk groups in the community. Those of us who live more sedentary lives than others are certainly at risk. These are concrete initiatives that are going to make a real difference to communities around Australia, with active and practical assistance to provide people with incentives to improve their health. This is another historic reform.

A proportion of funding has also been reserved for reward payments which are going to go to the states and territories who meet agreed targets. For example, some short-term targets include increasing the proportion of the population who meet those healthy weight guidelines, while longer term targets include reducing the hazardous consumption of alcohol and reducing the daily smoking rates from 16.6 per cent to 10 per cent within 10 years. This is a fundamental change in the way that we conduct the business of health, investing now in our hospitals and acute services but also investing for the long term to ensure that we create incentives to become the healthiest country that we can be. I am sure that in years to come we will thank both the Prime Minister and the premiers for having the determination to sign up to these initiatives in workplaces, primary schools, childcare centres and communities across the country and this important change in investing in preventative health.