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

I move:

That the amendment be agreed to.

I will speak very briefly on the Australian National Preventive Health Agency Bill 2010, as I understand will the opposition. The government recognises the importance of taking decisive action to address issues of prevention and to make sure we are improving the health of our community not only now but into the future. I note the amendment that has been made by the Senate. The Senate has amended the bill to now require that the CEO of the agency publish all advice or recommendations given on the agency’s website within 12 months of its being provided.

While I emphasise to the House that the agency will be independent, it is important that the agency be able to provide frank and fearless advice to governments. We are prepared to accept this amendment, although we did raise that the agency would be subject to the usual Public Service statutory agency checks and balances, which we believe would be sufficient. That is, it will be required to provide an annual report, it will be required to provide strategic plans on its proposed work, it will be required to publish a report on the state of preventive health in Australia every two years and its CEO will have to appear before Senate estimates. Nevertheless, we appreciate the will that has been expressed by the Senate. We are determined to have this preventive agency established. I note that the former Prime Minister is here at the table. This is an area that he has been very passionate about. We are prepared to accept this amendment in order to have this vital National Preventive Health Agency established.

Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Primary Healthcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The opposition supported this amendment to the Australian National Preventive Health Agency Bill 2010 in the Senate and supported a similar amendment when the bill was last debated in the House. The National Preventative Health Taskforce recommended that the National Preventive Health Agency be an independent statutory body. It has been set up so that the advice and recommendations will be provided to the minister and the minister alone. That is why we thought—and Senator Xenophon and the Greens also thought, and it was originally Senator Xenophon’s idea—that the advice and recommendations from the CEO to the minister should be made publicly available. The amendment, as the Minister for Health and Ageing has said, states that it should be made publicly available within 12 months of being provided.

The Reserve Bank of Australia provides the minutes of its meetings within six weeks. The Productivity Commission makes its recommendations publicly available. This is an important step in transparency. The advice and recommendations from the CEO will be available for all of the parliament and for all of the public. We will be able to see the ideas, and if ministers do not take up those ideas then oppositions and others will have the opportunity to ask why not and might have the opportunity to take up some of those ideas themselves. So we support the motion to agree to the amendment and welcome the minister’s backflip on this.

Question agreed to.