Page 3705 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 23 November 2022
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that would be uncharitable, wouldn’t it, Mr Assistant Speaker Pettersson? We know that it would not be a winning strategy for the Liberals to go down this path because Canberrans have repeatedly rejected the same old conservative Canberra Liberals, who talk to each other rather than talking to the community.
I do question the motivation for Ms Castley’s motion—more so because it has not been called for in numerous rounds of public consultation to plan for the future of our health system. It also equates non-health plans and strategies—the Women’s Plan, which is a whole-of-government plan to address the ongoing inequality in our community for women, and the Capital of Equality plan, again, an ongoing plan to address the barriers to equality faced by LGBTIQ+ Canberrans—with health strategies. They are not. They are whole-of-government strategies of which health plays one part.
I will give Ms Castley the benefit of the doubt that she has brought this motion forward with the intent of supporting the government’s aim to continue improving the health and wellbeing of all Canberrans. It is certainly something that we can get behind.
We are already delivering on a comprehensive, whole-of-sector, 10-year framework which has a range of key, whole-of-system plans and strategies, including the preventive health plan, the health services plan that I released in August and myriad other evidence-based subsector plans developed with experts in the community.
The amendment that has been circulated in my name outlines the importance of continuing to deliver on those comprehensive plans that address our health system planning and our preventive health investment, as well as mental health and suicide prevention, among other strategies, plans and activities that are focused on improving our population’s health.
Of course, men benefit from this. Canberran men clearly benefit because we can see the impact on overall life expectancy, which is continuing to increase. Also, there are real challenges which our strategies, actions and plans are tailored to address, and we are doing that through the targeting of specific actions.
Let me assure you that the government is focused on improving the health of everyone in our community by focusing on those priority populations with evidence-based actions that will support those people in particular who are most vulnerable, most marginalised and most at risk of poor outcomes or poor access to health services. This continuous investment and vision have ensured that we continue to lead the nation in life expectancy and a range of other key indicators.
As I said, our investments and our efforts are guided by experts, stakeholders and community through co-design strategies because we know that that is what will help us to do the most good.
I want to assure Ms Castley that the ACT government does take men’s health extremely seriously. Across our suite of strategies, plans and activities, those men who most need support and who will most benefit are a focus.
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