Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak in support of the Australian National Preventive Health Agency Bill 2009. My first inclination is to use the word ‘preventative’ rather than ‘preventive’, but people should not be too disturbed about it. I looked up the etymology of the words ‘preventive’ and ‘preventative’. It is from Middle English and, prior to that, from the Latin ‘praevenire’, meaning ‘to come before’, so it is much the same word. People can relax because there is no big difference at all.

The passing of the preventive health agency bill will bring about a new era in Australian health reform as we move on from talking about preventive health care to actually doing something about it. We have known for a long time that as a nation we must do better and do more to prevent chronic disease—from when the cartoon character ‘Norm’ was telling us to be more involved with life, back in the seventies. A former Queensland health minister, the Hon. Stephen Robertson, who was my boss, described it as ‘a tsunami of chronic disease coming our way’. The member for Oxley touched on that in his speech.

There are some pretty chilling facts out there. The first baby boomers will retire next year. I was born in 1966. According to some definitions, I am either the last of the baby boomers or a few years into Generation X. That whole wave of baby boomers is going to put incredible strains on our health system. As earlier speakers have indicated, we have a high expectation of healthcare needs in the Australian community. People are not prepared to lower those standards, and obviously no government wants to lower those standards. But the costs to our community are going to be astronomical if this tsunami of chronic disease does reach us.

I will take one example: obesity. It is estimated that the overall cost of obesity to Australian society and governments was $58.2 billion in 2008. Chronic diseases like diabetes, some cancers and heart disease loom large on the horizon for way too many Australians. But prevention, as they say, is better than cure. The other proverb is: ‘A stitch in time saves nine’. US studies have shown that every dollar we spend on preventative health saves us about $5 in health expenditure, so, to be more accurate, we could change the proverb to: ‘A stitch in time saves five’. When you consider the escalation of healthcare costs in recent years and the projections for the future, now more than ever, we need to, as Norm said, be a little bit more active. Not only can we save money but, more importantly, we can save lives, extend lives and improve people’s quality of life.

During the parliamentary recess I held two seniors forums in the northern and southern bits of my electorate. Because they were so successful, I then held a seniors health forum in Annerley. After the Sunnybank and Annerley seniors forums, people were so excited about the local Brisbane South Division of GPs that they wanted more information about some of their health concerns and what they could do. It was a golden opportunity for our senior citizens to meet local health practitioners, to find out more about how to keep fit and healthy and to give their feedback on our health system. The chilling bit was when one of the GPs from Sherwood talked about inoculations. Basically, all of the characteristics of the people who should be getting swine flu injections applied to me. I thought it was for other people, but it became clear that if you travel a bit, meet lots of people and shake hands you should receive a swine flu vaccination, which I will be taking steps to do. The message I heard loud and clear from our seniors at the three forums is that governments have to do more to promote healthy lifestyle choices and help people stay healthy and out of hospital. Prevention, as they say, is much better than cure. If we do not act now, we will be overwhelmed by this tsunami.

This bill sets up the Australian National Preventive Health Agency to drive research and investment in preventive health. The agency will report directly to the health minister and, through the Australian Health Ministers’ Conference, to ministers around the country. It is another initiative to come out of COAG and was agreed to in November last year as part of the National Partnership Agreement on Preventive Health. Again, the Rudd government is putting politics and turf wars aside in the interests of a better and healthier country.

In consultation with Australian health ministers, the health minister will appoint the CEO and an advisory council for the National Preventive Health Agency. The council will include Commonwealth, state and industry representatives, including experts in preventive health—the people at the coalface, so to speak, in terms of saving and changing lives. The agency will help support health ministers around the country achieve outcomes through the national partnership. This includes delivering about $700 million to help Australians adopt healthier lifestyles. The Commonwealth is providing $133 million over four years to establish the agency and fund preventive health research and social market campaigns that target issues like obesity and smoking. It is no secret that obesity and smoking are major causes of chronic disease but the messages are not yet getting through.

I remember when I was elected in November one of the first things that happened was that the ‘baby’ MPs were brought to Parliament House and were given a talk about the challenges of life in Canberra. The MP who gave us the talk spoke about putting on one kilo of weight a month. Thankfully I have not quite lived up to that; I think that would be 23 extra kilos. Looking at the other MPs who were at that talk, I do not see anyone that has done as bad as that. I am not sure that every MP can say the same thing. It was certainly an indication that you have to be very, very careful. Everywhere we go we get offered some food, and it is normally very tasty food but probably not the best food, and it is likely to put on a couple of extra kilos.

Similarly around 20 per cent of Australians still smoke. Regarding the overall numbers, the trend, is slightly downwards except, I was sad to see, amongst young women. The numbers of young women who are taking up smoking are actually increasing. With all of the knowledge that we have of cancer and carcinogens, there are still people who smoke. I know it is hard to believe, and some of them are informed people. We need to do what we can to get those trends down for young women and for Australians overall.

Obesity is projected to lower our children’s life expectancy by two years by the time they reach adulthood. That is an amazing statistic. My children are nine months old and four years old and to think that we are breeding a generation that is going to have a lower life expectancy than us is a suggestion that civilisation is not getting it right. Even my four-year-old knows many of the brands and the ads connected with fast food establishments—I am loath to call them restaurants. It is amazing how much more efficient some of these fast food agencies are compared to parenting advice. It is almost unbelievable to consider that the next generation could have a shorter life expectancy than us, their parents. As I said, it is almost an abdication of the term ‘civilisation’. But, and it is a big but, spelt b-u-t-t, we can turn this trend around.

The agency will focus on issues like healthy weight, physical activity, healthy eating and smoking to help drive the wholesale change in attitudes and behaviours. Of course, if our aims to reduce preventable chronic disease are to be achieved, we need cooperation across governments, across academia, through the media, through sporting bodies and through others. I think it is about time that the fast food industry stood up. I would certainly call on my local restaurants and fast food establishments to see what they can do. Rather than just having a token healthy food item on the menu, perhaps they could actually try and sell it rather than merely have it there as a token item that no-one buys.

The Preventive Health Agency will have a big role to play in fostering this cooperation across industry and the non-government and community sectors. Other key roles of the agency include providing evidence based advice to health ministers on preventive health issues; pulling together data on preventable chronic diseases and risk factors; providing research grants; and promoting national guidelines, standards and best practice codes for preventive health.

I have spoken about this before, but one of the most appalling legacies of the coalition government was their gross underfunding of the public healthcare system. Over the life of their government, they left state governments billions of dollars out of pocket on public health through the funding administered by the Australian healthcare agreement. In June 2007, state and territory health ministers released the report Caring for our health? A report card on the Australian government’s performance on health care. This report found that, around the nation, the coalition government were ripping off the public health system by about $1.1 billion every year. That equates to about 350,000 additional admissions each year. So starved of funding were our state health systems that there was very little left over to focus on the longer term preventive strategies to address the causes of chronic disease. You cannot worry about tomorrow or what is going to appear on the horizon when the ambulances are ramping outside the emergency services department.

In contrast, the Rudd government are facing up to our responsibility to improve the health system, and we are moving on a number of fronts through our health reform agenda and the national preventative health strategy. In cooperation with state and territory governments, this strategy sets bold targets to reverse obesity trends, halve smoking rates to below 10 per cent and reduce risky drinking levels. The new Australian National Preventive Health Agency will have a significant impact on the future of health care in Australia. All of us in this place want to see Australians healthier, and I am confident this new agency will provide the kind of support and advice that our health ministers need to achieve that. I commend the bill to the House.

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