Category: Governance
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Before hitting the brakes on unhealthy products, let’s take our foot off the accelerator
Adjunct Professor Terry Slevin, CEO PHAA This post is the fourth in our series of articles exploring the PHAA’s 2022-23 pre-Budget submission, The Public Health Crisis Budget. Read the first post here, the second, and the third. “The commercial determinants of health are defined as factors that influence health which…
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Yes, words can harm young trans people. Here’s what we can do to help
Cristyn Davies, University of Sydney; Alessandra Chinsen, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute; Ken Pang, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute; Kerry H. Robinson, Western Sydney University, and Rachel Skinner, University of Sydney All children and adolescents have the right to live free from discrimination. However, the public debate last week around the proposed…
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Building a national approach to preventive health investment or the “Vomit principle” in action
Adjunct Professor Terry Slevin, CEO PHAA This post is the third in our series of articles exploring the PHAA’s 2022-23 pre-Budget submission, The Public Health Crisis Budget. Read the first and the second posts. The “Vomit Principle”? Let me explain. The CEO of the well-respected Grattan Institute spoke to a…
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Where will the 2022-23 Budget take us?
Adjunct Professor Terry Slevin – PHAA CEO This post is the first in our series of articles exploring the PHAA’s 2022-23 pre-Budget submission, The Public Health Crisis Budget. Future articles will include levies on harmful products including tobacco, alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverages. With polls showing the federal Government is a…
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Former PHAA Queensland President, Letitia Del Fabbro, to run in federal election
Jeremy Lasek – PHAA As regular readers of Intouch are aware, the PHAA is using the upcoming federal election as an opportunity to campaign for, among other things, a significantly bigger slice of the budget pie for public health. Fascinatingly, the first of our public health workforce profiles for 2022…
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A family perspective to the Omicron variant
Adjunct Professor Terry Slevin – PHAA CEO We left 2021 exhausted, battered and bruised, but feeling optimistic. In Australia, we had largely weathered the COVID19 storm pretty well by international standards. With a lot of sacrifice and discipline, supported largely by strong leadership that followed the expert public health advice.…
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On the value of microphones: The public urgently needs journalists to hold politicians accountable for the gaps in our national COVID response
Adjunct Professor Tarun Weeramanthri – President, PHAA As I write this on Sunday, I can hear the sound of the cricket coming from the TV in the next room. Between Christmas and Australia Day used to be the time many of us could take a break from work and enjoy…
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All I want for Christmas is an Australian Centre for Disease Control and Prevention
Terry Slevin, PHAA CEO Mariah Carey’s classic Christmas hit is a commercial radio and shopping centre staple every December. If I could tweak her lyrics, I’d change them to emphasise how essential a Centre for Disease Control and Prevention could be for Australia, and our near neighbours. The wariness many…
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Significant steps towards a healthier Australia: The 2021-2030 National Preventive Health Strategy
Terry Slevin – PHAA CEO Today marks a ‘red letter day’ for the health of our nation. At least it should. With the launch of Australia’s 10-year National Preventive Health Strategy, the Minister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt, has put in place the framework for what could be…
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A rallying call for public health to refocus efforts, on building government for the public’s good
Melissa Sweet – Croakey Health Media Introduction by Croakey: Public health professionals and organisations have been urged to do much more to promote good government as the fundamental determinant of planetary health and survival of the human species. In a keynote presentation to the recent Australian Public Health Conference, Dr Peter Tait…
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We need to become healthier, faster
Terry Slevin The Australian Government is currently consulting on its National Preventive Health Strategy. The most important message they need to hear is that It’s Time for Action. The establishment of a process to develop the Strategy was announced with some fanfare at the PHAA’s Preventive Health conference in…
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Where are all the public health policies this ACT election?
Terry Slevin This year has been indelibly marked by the public health crisis of COVID, and the public has had to take a crash-course in the prevention of infectious disease. Australians have quickly learnt to take simple preventive steps like increased hygiene and social distancing. Our political leaders have in…
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Last to know: the European Union knows more about our trade talks than we do
In the negotiations for an Australia-European Union Free Trade Agreement at present underway, the European Union is pushing for longer monopolies on medicines for its pharmaceutical companies.
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Three things happened that show we need parliament urgently
Peter Tait Two things happened in late July that makes me worry for the future of the public’s health in Australia. First, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that the National Covid-19 Coordination Commission (NCCC) was being brought under the National Cabinet. Second, the NCCC’s manufacturing working group leaked report blue…
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The false dichotomy of public health and the economy
Louisa Gordon Six months into the COVID-19 crisis and Australia is faring well on a global scale. Contributing factors are the border closures and united public health decisions based on scientific advice. It helped to have a giant moat around the country too. While Australia has been largely successful…
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Those who ‘pay the piper’ damage our health
Malcolm Baalman Should political donations from industries which sell harmful products, and then lobby governments vigorously to give them favourable regulation, be banned? It’s a common scene in Australian politics, indeed worldwide. A major political party holds a fundraising event. Industry representatives and their lobbyists pay an exaggerated amount –…
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COVID-19 policy responses show why political literacy is a public health issue
The adage “never discuss politics or religion” is invariably proffered to us with well-meaning intent at some point during our life. If anything, when it comes to public health issues, we need to be discussing politics more, not less, and certainly not avoiding it altogether.
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Standing against the slide to fascism: what can public health do now?
It is said that democracy is a frail flower in need of constant nurturing. Having decried our slip toward fascism (in Croakey and the Public Health Association of Australia blog) I thought it useful to think about actions the public health movement might take to stand up for democracy.
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“As Australia slips toward fascism, where does the public health community stand?”
The fires, floods and COVID-19 pandemic have shown the fragility of industrial civilisation and the strength and resilience of people and community.