Page 2132 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 August 2014
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As I said then:
The ACT Government is unlikely to be able to sustain this growth indefinitely.
Indeed the Chief Minister has said that current levels of expenditure are unsustainable. We are yet to see what the Chief Minister intends to do about it. I went on to say:
What is needed is a new long-term approach to health care in the ACT in which a greater emphasis is given to the provision of preventative health care and primary health care. Our focus should change—
where it can—
to an emphasis on wellness rather than sickness.
And there is a definite problem in the ACT. In short, at least 32 per cent of Canberrans are overweight, and at least 17 per cent in addition are obese. High body mass index is a risk factor for many chronic conditions. These include cardiovascular disease such as heart attacks, cancers including breast cancer and bowel cancer, diabetes and osteoarthritis. These are all national health priority areas.
We have a slightly different approach from the ACT government. I think that we want the same end result, but while the Labor government and the Greens are talking about banning things—they want to restrict the number of car parks so that people walk; they want to ban fruit juice in school; they want to ban certain items from aisles in supermarkets—we need to have a holistic view to preventative health in general.
At the last election we had a comprehensive plan to tackle obesity and deliver preventative health. It was based on the national preventative health strategy and provided these strategic directions: shared responsibility—developing strategic partnerships—at all levels of government, industry, business, unions, the non-government sector, research institutions and communities; acting early and throughout life—working with individuals, families and communities; engaging communities—acting and engaging with people where they live, work and play, at home, in schools, workplaces and the community; influencing markets and developing coherent policies; Indigenous Australians—contributing to closing the gap; and refocusing primary health care towards prevention.
The national preventative strategy set a number of targets, the first of which was to halt and reverse the rise in overweight and obesity. I certainly welcome the ACT government’s intent to do exactly that.
Back in 2012 we proposed a plan to establish an ACT preventative health task force, which would comprise members of community organisations, health professionals and ACT Health. The task force at that stage would have developed and implemented a holistic preventative health strategy across the ACT and provided ongoing advice to government.
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