20th Jun 2018, 6:11 PM – Senate Motions - Chronic Disease - Engage and invest

The majority voted in favour of a motion introduced by Greens Senator Richard Di Natale, which means it succeeded. Motions like these don’t make any legal changes by themselves but can be politically influential since they represent the will of the Senate.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes the launch today of Preventing Chronic Disease - How does Australia Score?, a score card produced by Prevention 1st, a campaign by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, the Public Health Association of Australia, Dementia Australia and the Consumers Health Forum of Australia;

(b) notes that the scorecard rates Australia's progress on the World Health Organization's recommendations for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases; and in particular the progress in addressing the four key risk factors of tobacco use, alcohol consumption, nutrition and physical activity;

(c) notes that the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare describes chronic disease as Australia's greatest health challenge and that a third of this disease burden is preventable;

(d) regrets the scorecard's findings that Australia's efforts rate as "poor" on three of the four risk factors – alcohol consumption, nutrition and physical activity;

(e) recognises that failure to make progress in these areas is leading to, and will continue to exacerbate, an increase in preventable chronic illnesses including obesity, heart disease, diabetes and dementia;

(f) condemns the government for dismantling the Australian National Preventive Health Agency and the flexible funds, cutting funding to prevention and public health programs and putting the quality of life and long term health of Australians at risk; and

(g) calls on the government to:

(i) actively engage in September's United Nations High-level meeting on non-communicable diseases (chronic disease) in New York and ensure Australia has ministerial representation; and

(ii) urgently act to invest in preventive health measures and implement the recommendations of the Preventing Chronic Disease – How does Australia Score? scorecard.