Page 3880 - Week 10 - Thursday, 20 September 2018
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relationship. A key focus of this meeting was transport and urban development. The Wellington City Council is working on the observation that better transport systems mean fewer car parks. We also discussed the links between effective public transport outcomes, active travel infrastructure and improved health outcomes. In Wellington, they are splitting many of the bike paths and footpaths to ensure the safety of all users, with dedicated cycling and walking paths. There is also a bikes to school program in New Zealand. It was great to discuss these initiatives and consider possible learnings for the ACT.
Wellington has very impressive mode-share achievements in what is a city that has quite possibly a much more challenging seasonal weather pattern and some incredibly steep hills. If Wellington can do it, so can we. Overall this meeting was very positive, and I am pleased to inform the Assembly that the strong sister city links were affirmed.
We also met with the New Zealand Health Promotion Agency. The Health Promotion Agency is an evidence-based health promotion organisation influencing many sectors that contribute to good health and wellbeing. The work of the agency focuses on promoting health and wellbeing, enabling health-promoting initiatives and environments, and informing health-promoting policy and practice.
Our meeting was very productive and gave us insight into the methods they use to effectively tailor messaging and mass media campaigns to positively influence the community’s health. The agency informed us of several successful campaigns they have developed to influence health outcomes, and ACT Health intend to connect with them further on these opportunities. New Zealanders really know how to make good ads, and not just about All Blacks on aeroplanes. I would encourage all members to take a good look at the work of the Health Promotion Agency.
From Wellington we then visited Christchurch, and our first meeting was with the New Zealand Health Innovation Hub. This is a partnership between New Zealand’s three biggest district health boards—Auckland, Canterbury and Counties Manukau. We met with Ms Stella Ward, chair of the hub’s executive leadership committee, who outlined the key purpose of the hub, which is to accelerate smart ideas, products and services to achieve improved health outcomes. The main goal is to establish and develop partnerships between the public health sector, research organisations and universities, and leverage these to deliver health outcomes while also managing and sharing intellectual property, research and commercialisation opportunities effectively. A key emphasis of the hub is on the motivation behind influencing behaviours that can lead to poor health outcomes.
In addition, the hub provides advice on marketing validation and health innovation funding models available for health professionals, including identifying problems or opportunities to commercialise innovation. There are many lessons we can learn from the New Zealand Health Innovation Hub, especially as we strive to further increase the role of research and trials in clinical service delivery.
Following this meeting we then joined a delegation of ANU and UC staff. I was thrilled to be accompanied by Professor Russell Gruen, the incoming Dean of the College of Health and Medicine, ANU; Professor Jane Dahlstrom, Interim Dean of
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