Weighing it up: Obesity in Australia

Introduction

Page last updated: 05 May 2013

The report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health and Ageing inquiry, Weighing it up: Obesity in Australia provides 20 recommendations on a range of issues affecting obesity in Australia.

Since the report was tabled the Australian Government has been taking action through a wide range of new initiatives targeting obesity and related population health issues. Many of these initiatives are described in the Australian Government’s 2010 Taking Preventative Action report, a response to Australia: the Healthiest Country by 2020, the report of the National Preventative Health Taskforce. The Preventative Health Taskforce was initiated by the Minister for Health and Ageing in April 2008, a similar timeframe and complementary process to the Parliamentary inquiry into obesity in Australia.

Taking Preventative Action sets out the Australian Government’s agenda for preventive health, including the following key activities:
a. funding the National Partnership Agreement on Preventive Health;
b. establishing the Australian National Preventive Health Agency;
c. launching a new social marketing campaign encouraging Australians to adopt a healthier lifestyle; and
d. reviewing current clinical guidelines on obesity and developing new guidance for consumers.

Aspects of this agenda are also being pursued through the Australian Government response to the release of the Labelling Logic: Review of Food Labelling Law and Policy (2011) report.

As there is some overlap between the recommendations of Weighing it up and Australia: the Healthiest Country by 2020, in this response the Australian Government has focused on the specific recommendations of Weighing it up rather than the broader range of issues brought out by the inquiry. Taking Preventative Action continues to be the central document for guiding Australia’s obesity prevention and management policy.

National Partnership Agreement on Preventive Health

The National Partnership Agreement on Preventive Health is a joint commitment between the Commonwealth, states and territories, which was announced in November 2008. Under this Agreement $932.7 million over nine years from July 2009 has been committed by the Australian Government to fund national preventive health initiatives.

This Agreement is the largest single commitment to health prevention and promotion by an Australian Government and will be used to fund healthy lifestyle programs in workplaces, communities and childhood settings; social marketing campaigns; and to establish necessary infrastructure to deliver, monitor and evaluate these programs.

Australian National Preventive Health Agency

As one of its commitments under the National Partnership, the Australian Government has established the Australian National Preventive Health Agency (ANPHA) to support all health ministers by providing evidence-based advice on appropriate programs, manage a research fund to build further supportive evidence in preventive health, and to focus on a range of other initiatives targeting chronic conditions and their lifestyle related risk factors. The Agency has been operational since 1 January 2011.

The Agency will play a critical role in building the evidence base on a broad range of effective interventions supporting healthy lifestyles. The Agency has been allocated a research fund and will develop a national preventive health research strategy, in conjunction with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), to support decisions about projects to be funded.