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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (25 September) . . Page.. 3349 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

joined in that round table discussion. I was pleased that part of that discussion included officers from the Department of Health, with the blessing of the Chief Minister, and I think we came up with some excellent ideas. That was on Monday, 16 June.

On 3 July we had a further round table that, unfortunately, Labor members were not able to attend either; but Ms Tucker, the Chief Minister and I attended, along with officers from her department, and talked about the outcomes of the original discussion. There was also input from a range of other people in the normal process of consultation. The outcome was a set of amendments, which we agreed were appropriately moved by the Minister for Health, but they did come out of an important process, and it is a process we are seeing more and more often now with members of the Assembly. It is a process in which I would like to see more involvement of the Labor Party. Only at the last sittings Mr Whitecross was very involved in a similar sort of process, so I do not want that statement to be misconstrued. It is a process that I think assists us to find good legislation for the Territory.

The process is one that is based on public health and the promotion of health. The Chief Minister, in her introductory speech, did refer to the Ottawa Charter and the principles in the charter, but I think they were not delivered. The principles of the Ottawa Charter set out prerequisites for health as follows:

The fundamental conditions and resources for health are peace, shelter, education, food, income, a stable eco-system, sustainable resources, social justice and equity. Improvement in health requires a secure foundation in these basic prerequisites.

I know that every member in this Assembly works towards trying to achieve those things. But it goes further than that. It says that health promotion requires enabling people to achieve their full health potential and requires mediating between different interests in society. It also requires action. It requires action in building healthy public policy and it requires people to ensure that policy combines diverse but complementary approaches, including legislation, fiscal measures, taxation and organisational change, and change that fosters greater equity. It requires joint action. It requires creating supportive environments in societies that are complex and interrelated. Health cannot be separated from other goals.

Mr Speaker, we are not talking about just the notion of sickness care. In talking about public health, we are talking about broader concepts of health - the way society organises its work, for example - that help create a healthy society. Health promotion generates living and working conditions that are safe, stimulating, satisfying and enjoyable. The Ottawa Charter goes on further about how we should move into the future. It talks about caring, holism and ecology being essential issues in developing strategies for health promotion. It calls on participants at the Ottawa conference in November 1986 - indeed, we should also take these on - in these terms:

to move into the arena of public health policy, and to advocate a clear political commitment to health and equity in all sectors;

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