Page 2840 - Week 09 - Thursday, 13 August 2015
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Current estimates suggest that up to 80 per cent of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes and more than one-third of cancers worldwide could be prevented by eliminating shared modifiable risk factors such as those associated with smoking, an unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and the harmful use of alcohol. Investing in campaigns to reduce smoking during pregnancy is expected to have a direct health benefit to the mother and their newborns by reducing low weight at birth and subsequent neonatal care costs.
The specific programs supported in this budget include the healthier work, ride or walk to school programs; kids at play, it’s your move; fresh tastes; smoking cessation; and a new interactive web-based data platform. The programs support the ACT government’s priority to invest in preventive health services to promote physical and emotional wellbeing and prevent disease across the ACT community, in line with our commitments to support the government’s zero growth target.
This budget also continues implementation of a sustained smoking cessation social marketing strategy targeting Indigenous people in the ACT. The “beyond today” social marketing campaign is a community-based approach to research that enables Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have successfully quit or have been affected by smoking-related illnesses to express themselves in their own voice, have ownership over the campaign and ensure that there are culturally valid messages being communicated to other Indigenous people.
Comprehensive promotion of the campaign and its materials, including media advertising and participation in all major Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander events, are all components of this funding. It will also enable continued collaborative working relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and community representatives. The funding also allows for the implementation of lessons learnt through the implementation and evaluation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tobacco control strategy 2010-14, outcome evaluations of the social marketing campaign, and scoping of targeted initiatives, particularly those focused on smoking in pregnancy.
This Labor government has delivered strong results for the people who use, rely upon and work in our high-class healthcare system. I would like to acknowledge the excellent work undertaken by the staff of ACT Health and health-related non-government organisations, as well as those many volunteers and carers who support the health system every day across the ACT and in the surrounding region. These committed individuals provide a professional and modern health service with compassion and integrity, and their efforts should be commended.
This budget invests $1.5 billion to increase, improve and support health services for the Canberra community. It is the biggest budget allocation we have ever made and it is a clear commitment by this government to better health services for all Canberrans.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
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