Australia's peak body for Public Health has responded to the COVID-19 Response Inquiry report, saying that the emphasis on an Australian Centre for Disease Control is the correct approach to help the country prepare for future infectious disease outbreaks, as well as the persistent challenges of non-communicable diseases.
"As the COVID-19 outbreak changed the world and our lives, this inquiry was a detailed examination into how governments and people responded, and what we can do better," Public Health Association of Australia CEO, Adj Prof Terry Slevin says.
"It focuses on solutions, not blame, and that's as it should be.
"We appreciate the enormous efforts made by the independent panel members Ms Robyn Kruk AO, Prof Catherine Bennett, and Dr Angela Jackson, as well as the secretariat, and all who contributed to the inquiry.
"We applaud the panel for the depth of its recommendations, particularly the importance of an Australian Centre for Disease Control (Australian CDC) which can and should be an institution that helps prevent people from getting sick or dying from preventable diseases, be they infectious ones or chronic diseases.
"One way a government flags its priorities is by how it spends our money. In this case, the government responded to Labor's 2022 election commitment to establish an Australia CDC by allocating $90m in 2023 to create an interim Australian CDC, which has funding until 30 June 2025. Today, the Australian Government announced it will fund a permanent CDC with $251m over the next four years, and a commitment to ongoing funding. At roughly $60Mpa it is a modest but vitally important launching point from which the CDC should grow".
"We welcome the announcement that legislation will be presented to Parliament next year, with the goal of the Centre to commence on 1 January 2026.
"We are pleased that the inquiry report recommends that the Australian CDC needs to be 'transparent, trusted and independent' (p 52, inquiry summary) and that its 'role and functions should be codified in legislation to ensure it is independent and skill based'. The potential of a permanent CDC is too important to be left to the whim of the government of the day.
"It's also vital that once established, the CDC's scope is expanded to cover non-communicable diseases as many are preventable, they diminish our quality of life, and they're expensive to manage.
"We welcome the independent panel's recommendation that
In order to deliver trusted advice on risk assessment, and provide a comprehensive approach to pandemic preparedness and response, the CDC should be expanded to encompass chronic and communicable diseases when it has progressed preparedness priorities, and support existing advice pathways to government and the Department of Health and Aged Care on policy priorities for non‑communicable diseases and the wider determinants of health. (p 59, inquiry summary).
"Governments say they want people to stay healthy and well. One of the best ways is to invest in preventive health efforts which keep people out of hospital.
"We welcome the independent panel's inclusion of the wider determinants of health, and look forward to working constructively with the Australian Government, and via our state and territory branches, to help achieve that."
