Terry Slevin
Since the 2 May federal election outcome it is crystal clear that the long awaited and hard fought for Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC) will now become a reality.
The Albanese-led Labor party first expressed commitment to the CDC while in opposition in 2020. It became a partisan issue only late in the recent election campaign, when the Liberal party indicated to us in writing that they were unlikely to support the CDC.
PHAA understands that the legislation for the CDC is in a reasonably advanced stage of thinking and development. We’ve been approached to assist the health department with consulting key stakeholders. Another opportunity for consultation will occur at the upcoming Communicable Disease and Immunisation Conference in Adelaide, 10 -12 June. That conference will also feature a panel discussion including leaders providing international, national, and jurisdictional perspectives.
PHAA is keen to ensure the legislation sets ambitious goals for the work of the CDC to grow quickly, boosting capacity and expertise in public health in Australia. We want it to prepare us for the next epidemic, as well as improve our underlying health even in safer times.
An important part of the CDC’s role will be to go beyond merely being an agency to capture and report national data on communicable disease prevalence. As the legislation for the CDC is finalised, we will push that a nationwide chronic disease prevention mission is made an integral objective of the new Centre.
This is also the right time to ensure the powers, scope, governance structures and independence of the CDC are clearly reflected in the legislation for the new agency before it passes Parliament.
It is worth revisiting the thinking from late 2022. A CDC consultation paper featured key themes including
- A coordinated and national approach to public health
- A data revolution: A national system and improved linkages
- National, consistent and comprehensive guidelines and communications
- National medical stockpile
- A world class workforce
- Rapid response to health threats
- International partnerships
- Leadership on preventive health
- Wider determinants of health and
- Research Prioritisation
There is a high expectation that the agency will have technical excellence. The stakeholder Consultation report from December 2022 included
“The CDC was envisioned to include core discipline experts including epidemiologists, statisticians, public health practitioners, infectious disease physicians, virologists, occupational health scientists, behavioural scientists, communication experts, and bioethicists”
There are undoubtedly legitimate concerns and considerations about the role and nature of the CDC in context of existing public health machinery. How will the CDC work with states and territories? How will it engage internationally, and with other key federal agencies? Resolving these is vital to the CDC’s success.
Getting the right balance to be “independent” enough to engender trust from the community, the media, and all levels of government, while still being close enough to the decision making of government is essential. The centre’s Director General needs to have ability to make judgments, assessments and where needed public statements on key issues of public health importance without being controlled by the political wind of the day.
Many public health professionals may have hesitated over the past few years when considering a commitment to joining the CDC’s staff. Some may have even worried the agency might be a career dead end, given political doubts about its future. Hopefully all of those barriers have been cleared, allowing the new agency to attract Australia’s best talent.
Meanwhile, there are disturbing political developments in the USA creating an existential threat to the “original CDC” – the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. One US commentator has suggested that the threats to the US CDC “…could be catastrophic, jeopardizing our safeguards against outbreaks and public health crises”. So now, perhaps more so than at any time, it’s essential to ensure that Australia has a strong, independent capacity to tackle public health crises on our own.
Meanwhile, encouraging recent developments at the World Health Assembly on the Pandemic Agreement give cause for some optimism about international co-operation on public health.
Many people, and organisations, PHAA included, have invested time energy and resources over many years to support the establishment of the Australian CDC.
Getting the legislation right is the short-term goal as the bill is likely to go into in the spring session of Parliament. The centre should commence formal operations on 1 January 2026.
The long game is to ensure the Australian CDC develops the level of partnerships, support and relationships across government, the public health sector, and the community, to ensure it is a long-term success.
The challenge now is to give this new kid on the public health block every opportunity to genuinely contribute to the health of people in Australia, today and tomorrow.
Adj Prof Terry Slevin is CEO of the Public Health Association of Australia
Image: Adj Prof Slevin (left) and immediate past PHAA President, Dr Tarun Weeramanthri AM, and numerous PHAA members have pushed for the CDC over many years.
What the major parties said about the Aust CDC before the 2025 election
Australian Labor Party
“The Albanese Labor Government is delivering on its commitment to establish an independent Australian Centre for Disease Control (Australian CDC). In 2024, the Government announced a $251.7 million investment to deliver the Australian CDC. The COVID-19 Inquiry called for an Australian CDC and that is what the Albanese Government is delivering. The Australian CDC will ensure Australia has a national organisation that brings together critical information and experts to deliver coherent, transparent, timely, independent, evidence-based health advice to improve health outcomes for the whole community. The Australian CDC will build upon the work the interim CDC that was established in January 2024 (Achievements of the first year of the interim Australian CDC).”
Liberal Party
There is no denying that Australia was one of the best performing countries in the world through the Covid-19 Pandemic. Australia’s response whilst not perfect – allowed us to come out of the pandemic with health and economic outcomes that were world leading, saving over 40,000 lives. In fact, Australia achieved one of the lowest rates of loss of life in the world. The Coalition does not believe the case has been made for the establishment of a dedicated Centre for Disease Control in an Australian context. Australia’s rate of infections and deaths from COVID was considerably lower than many countries that have the Centre for Disease Controls such as Europe and the United States.
Greens
The Greens are very supportive of establishing a Centre for Disease Control (CDC) within the Department of Health’s existing resources, and have been consistently calling on the government to establish one for many years.
The Greens support fully resourcing and empowering a Centre for Disease Control within the Department of Health’s existing resources, to maintain a national epidemic and pandemic prevention strategy, including providing advice on prevention interventions, identifying regulatory reforms, and advising research funding bodies on preventive research priorities.
Do you support the need for the CDC to also have responsibility for addressing the drivers of chronic non-communicable diseases? Yes.
Leave a Reply