Mark Butler
Hindmarsh · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“But earlier today we were all in here voting on the latest instalment in the member for Lindsay's ongoing but thus far unsuccessful campaign to rebrand the Liberal Party.”
“I thank the member for Werriwa for her contribution and for her really strong support for everything we're doing to make Medicare stronger and make medicines cheaper. I thank all members for their contributions to the debate on this bill. As the member for Werriwa said, Medicare is the very best of Australia.”
“I thank the member for his question, which is a question I've answered before in this place since the budget. As I've said on a number of occasions publicly and in this chamber, the additional support that over-65s have received since about 2004 for their private health insurance premium is something we did revisit given the significant p…”
“But, under ours, they'll receive an increase of more than 20 per cent, or an additional $160 million in this year alone, which means more doctors, more nurses and better care in Tasmania.”
“Importantly, this bill provides stability so patients can continue to benefit from the outcomes of these programs and strengthened access to primary care.”
“That approach gives providers and the government greater certainty while preserving the flexibility needed to keep program settings up to date as health system needs evolve. Importantly, the bill does not change the underlying policy settings of existing programs.”
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“The inquiry identified serious gaps in our national response to the pandemic. These included the absence of a central authority to provide consistent advice, fragmented data systems and outdated emergency planning. The message was clear: we must not allow our public health systems to fall into neglect or into short-term thinking. The inquiry also spoke about the need to rebuild trust and maintain public trust. Trust in the health advice that informs governments when making decisions can have a significant impact on peoples' lives. The Australian CDC will bring the independence and, importantly, the transparency that the public rightly expects. It will make its advice to governments and the reasons behind the advice transparently available to the public.”
“I share the members' interests in seeing the CDC become a lasting, trusted pillar of Australia's public health architecture. This bill delivers on the government's promise to establish an Australian centre for disease control as a statutory agency within my portfolio, commencing on 1 January 2026. Establishing a transparent, trusted and independent CDC will strengthen Australia's public health capability, improve pandemic preparedness and safeguard the health and wellbeing of all Australians, not just in times of crisis but every day. The need for a national CDC has never been clearer. The independent COVID-19 Response Inquiry found Australia went into the COVID pandemic with no playbook for the pandemic, limited readiness of the National Medical Stockpile and badly stretched aged-care and healthcare systems.”
“I thank my friend the member for Makin for his thoughtful contribution to this bill, the Australian Centre for Disease Control Bill 2025, and for his thoughtful contribution over many years to good health policy in this country. I want to thank other members who have contributed to the debate on the establishment of the Australian Centre for Disease Control. I want to acknowledge the genuine interest and thoughtful engagement from members of this House in relation to this important bill. I've appreciated the constructive dialogue and the feedback that has been shared, and I've met with a number of members to discuss the bill in detail. The level of engagement reflects the significance of the bill and the shared commitment to delivering an Australian CDC that will strengthen the country's capabilities.”
“They'll also be taking pressure off busy emergency departments, like the one at St George Hospital, and that's what the member for Barton and all her colleagues on this side are focused on: delivering for their community and delivering on promises they made to their electorate at the last election, not the mindless division and infighting that seems to occupy those opposite every waking hour.”
“Three are already open, and 47 have already been subject to competitive tender processes and will be announced very soon. I promised that they'd be open by the middle of next year, but I want to overdeliver on that. I'm hopeful that as many as possible will be up and running by Christmas this year. Once they are all up and running, four out of five Australians will live within a 20-minute drive of a Medicare urgent care clinic. Together, they will see two million patients every single year, every one of whom will be bulk-billed. Importantly, they won't just be getting high-quality urgent care when and where they need it, fully bulk-billed, fully free of charge, as important as that is.”
“Wait times were very good, as were the nurse and doctor. I'm impressed and grateful. Especially on weekends when your GP is closed, or you don't quite need to go to emergency but need urgent attention. Well worth it! Melissa said similar things about Nurse Kass and Dr Meera, who helped with her two-year-old daughter, who had split her head open. Again, they didn't have to go to hospital. This Carlton Urgent Care Clinic is just one of 90 that we've already delivered. They're open seven days a week and are fully bulk-billed. All you need to take is your Medicare card. Already they've seen very close to two million patients. We want more Australians to get that sort of care, the sort of care Gabrielle and Melissa talked about receiving from Carlton. That's why we promised 50 more urgent care clinics at the last election.”
“Thank you to the member for Barton for her question. Through her work at the St Vincent de Paul in New South Wales before she came to this place, every day she saw the sorts of choices that families under cost-of-living pressure have to make. That explains the strength of her conviction and advocacy for our determination as the government to deliver more free visits to the doctor and even cheaper medicines. I saw this a few weeks ago when she and I visited the Carlton Urgent Care Clinic in the Barton electorate, just around the corner from the St George Hospital. Since it opened last year, it has already seen about 18,000 patients completely free of charge—patients like Gabrielle, who said in a Google review: I've been here twice for my 92 year old Mum. Each time the service has been caring, thorough, and informative.”
“Obviously—it goes without saying—all this is terrific for the hip pocket, but it's also good for your health: helping Australians afford the medicines and the health care that their doctors have said are important for their health, creating a stronger Medicare and a healthier Australia.”
“Without a listing on the PBS, patients would have to pay around $100,000 for a course of treatment with this drug, and that is the magic of the PBS: providing access for Australian patients to the world's best medicines at affordable prices. And we're making those PBS medicines even cheaper. The first four waves of our Cheaper Medicines policy have already saved Australian patients more than $1.5 billion in payments at the pharmacy counter—a huge amount. But there are more savings to come. This year we froze the price of PBS scripts for Australia's millions of pensioners, not just for this year but for the rest of the decade. And from 1 January next year the maximum price of a PBS script for Australia's general patients will be cut to just $25—the same price it was way back in 2004, more than 20 years ago.”
“Although the overall survival rate in this country is one of the world's best, it's much lower if you're told that you have metastatic breast cancer, or cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. Only about one in three of those women will survive more than five years. Last week, we listed on the PBS a new drug that gives new hope to those women who've received a diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer. Truqap will benefit as many as 3,000 patients every year—women with HR-positive/HER2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer, a type that accounts for as much as 70 per cent of all breast cancer cases.”
“Thank you to the member for Bullwinkel. Following the member for Cooper and the member for Indi, she is the 10th nurse elected to this parliament and very appropriately represents an electorate named after the most famous nurse we have had in Australia, Vivian Bullwinkel. I first met the member for Bullwinkel when she was presenting a paper at a global cancer conference about the benefits of receiving chemotherapy in-home as part of her doctorate in nursing. This is a member who deeply understands the importance of a stronger Medicare and cheaper medicines. She also knows that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Today and every other day, on average, around 60 Australian women are told that they have breast cancer.”
“They would then provide a shortlist with a report on every shortlisted candidate to the minister for the minister's consideration and then the decision of the government in the usual way. I'm very confident that that provides a level of independence and assurance for the community that this person occupying a very important role in this new agency will have the appropriate qualifications and experience and the appropriate protections and independence from political interference.”
“They are for misbehaviour or an inability to perform their duties due to physical or mental incapacity. Importantly, that person cannot be terminated for providing advice that the government of the day does not agree with. As to the appointment, the minister for health must be satisfied that the director-general holds appropriate expertise, qualifications or experience in public health matters prior to their appointment. The process of appointment will reflect the government's well-understood merit and transparency policy. That involves a selection being put together, which in this case will probably involve the secretary of my department, along with a nominee of the Public Service Commission and other potential representatives. They would undertake an interview process after advertisement.”
“I'm not sure whether it's supported by the opposition; they indicated at the last election that they would not proceed with this, but it's an important debate for this parliament to continue to have. The CDC will be an independent agency that operates separately from the Department of Health. The Director-General of the CDC is a very important role, and many of its arrangements, powers and functions are set out in the bill that's currently being debated by the House. It's very important that the director-general perform his or her functions at arm's length from the government. They will not be subject to direction from the secretary of my department or from the minister—or anyone else, for that matter. There are also, importantly to the member's question, very limited provisions allowing the termination of the Director-General of the CDC.”
“Thank you to the member for her question and for her engagement about this really important reform. As the member knows and as many in this House know, the lack of a single trusted source of advice and data was one of the very significant restrictions we had in our pandemic preparedness and our pandemic response. That was the view of many public health organisations. It was the first conclusion of the independent COVID inquiry. That is why we are currently debating legislation to introduce an independent CDC. It's supported by all state and territory governments. It's supported by every public health organisation I'm aware of. It's supported by many members of this House.”
“More broadly than that—again, as the member knows—we are in the process of receiving a national strategy for health and medical research that's been prepared by Rosemary Huxtable, a very esteemed former public servant. This has been a big ask from the health and medical research sector to have an overarching national strategy. Ms Huxtable has released a draft strategy that's out for consultation now. I encourage the member and other interested members to engage with that. We've asked Ms Huxtable to deliver the final strategy to government by the end of the year. That strategy, obviously along with pieces of work like the 10-year review commissioned or delivered by the departments of treasury and finance, will guide the government's future thinking.”
“It means that we're now funding more than $1.5 billion of health and medical research projects every year. When I set up the review that set the MRFF in motion that was about $650 million—so we've more than doubled the amount of funding going in. The member looks confused—$850 million from the MREA, the endowment account from the NHMRC, and about $650 million per year from the MRFF. As the member knows, $650 million has been the annual disbursement from the MRFF for some years now. The member knows the departments of treasury and finance conducted their statutory review, after 10 years of the MRFF. That review, I think, has been published in the last couple of weeks and has raised a number of issues around the funding from the MRFF, including annual disbursement amount.”
“I thank the member for her question. As a paediatric neurologist and a very esteemed researcher, she understands this area very well and has been a strong contributor to the debate about the future of health and medical research, which I'll come to. That includes the question of disbursements from the MRFF, but it goes more broadly than that. As the member knows, and as most in this House know, the MRFF was set up about a decade ago not just to add more money to our health and medical research sector from government but also to take a slightly different approach: not only to have funding flow essentially bottom up for investigator initiated applications to the NHMRC but to allow us as a country to set out particular priorities that would then be funded through a priority driven fund, through the MRFF.”
“But they told the member for Maribyrnong and me last week that from 1 November they will bulk-bill at all five clinics every single patient that comes through their door. They worked out it's not just better for their patients; it also works out better for their practice and for their individual doctors when they look at the record investment we're making. We're delivering more doctors, more bulk-billing, more urgent care clinics and even cheaper medicines. That's what a government focused on delivery does.”
“The bulk-billing rate for those 11 million Australians is now comfortably over 90 per cent again. But we know that it's too low for those Australians who don't have a concession card. That's why, in around three weeks time, for the first time ever, we will extend bulk-billing support to every single Australian patient and we'll pay a bonus incentive to those general practices that agree to bulk-bill every single one of their patients. Last week, the member and I visited the Moonee Ponds Super Clinic, one of five clinics operated by the Yarra Medical Group. Right now they're mixed billing practices; they charge a gap to all of their patients who don't have a concession card.”
“Today's annual Health of the nation report, as I said to the member for Calare in response to his question, confirms that, for the first time in many years, not only has the headcount of GPs increased in this country but the more important measure of full-time-equivalent GPs has increased in the last 12 months for the first time in years. And more are coming. Last year was a record year for the number of junior doctors training as GPs. This year broke that record, and I'm confident that next year will see a record again. To the member's question, we're also delivering on our promise around bulk-billing. Since we tripled the bulk-billing incentive for concession card holders and children a little less than two years ago, there have been almost 1.9 million additional free visits to the GP in the member's state of Victoria alone.”
“I thank the member for Maribyrnong for her question. She is, as you know, Speaker, a qualified psychologist and adds her name to the long list of health professionals on this side of the House. We have nurses, we have doctors, we have psychologists, we have the first female pharmacist ever elected to the parliament—just to name a few—and every single one of them, every single member on this side of the House, campaigned hard at the last election on our promise to strengthen Medicare and to deliver more doctors, more bulk-billing, more urgent care clinics and even cheaper medicines. And we're delivering all of those promises.”
“But more doctors, more bulk-billing, more urgent care and even cheaper medicines are the four key pillars of our strengthening Medicare agenda.”
“There are currently, I think, 100 Commonwealth supported places for medical schools open for tender. Charles Sturt University and other universities are able to apply for that. Obviously it is a competitive process, and that will be conducted at arm's length from me and from the education minister. We have asked in the tender, as I understand it, for universities to indicate a particular focus on general practice because, although we want to see doctors more broadly come into the system, we are prioritising an increase in general practice above all things else because we know that a well-functioning general practice scheme is utterly central to a well-functioning healthcare system. I welcome the question. Obviously I can't comment on the tender which is open right now.”
“It reflects determined work to make general practice more attractive for junior doctors as they consider their future career after finishing medical school. The member does highlight the fact that there has been limited growth in medical school training places for many, many years now—often because of pretty determined opposition from the medical community itself, including the AMA over the years. Over the last several years this government has added a number of new medical schools, or is in the process of adding new medical schools, particularly outside of our major cities—James Cook University in Far North Queensland; Darwin, for the first time, will have its own medical school; and a number of other places have been added over the last several years as well.”
“I thank the member for Calare for his question and for his persistent advocacy around improving healthcare services not just in his community but in rural Australia more broadly. I'll come to the question of CSPs because I think he's aware that there is a tender open right now, but can I refer to the college of GPs General practice: health of the nation 2025 report released this morning. It is an annual report that the college has delivered for nine years now, I think—since the former government got rid of the BEACH dataset that used to track activity in general practices. It's an important contribution. One of the highlights of this morning's report is that for the first time in many years the number of GPs, in a full-time-equivalent sense, has started to increase again. That is a good thing for the country.”
“After the Abbott government failed to get their GP tax through the Senate, of course they decided instead to freeze the Medicare rebate—and the backlash rightly was immense, absolutely immense. The health minister at the time, Mr Dutton, was shelved as health minister after barely two years in the job and replaced by the Leader of the Opposition. Perhaps the Leader of the Opposition thought of trying to find a way out of the utter mess left by that disastrous Dutton horror budget or, to paraphrase that famous speech she gave to the LNP a couple of weeks ago, perhaps instead she thought of Peter often as she walked the corridors of the parliament as the new health minister.”
“Thanks to the member for Menzies, who is already such a strong advocate of our push to increase rates of bulk-billing not just in his part of Melbourne but right across Australia. Our first investments are already turning around bulk-billing for concession card holders and kids. That rate now sits above 92 per cent, with almost seven million additional free visits to the GP every year as a result of our investment to triple the bulk-billing incentive for those Australians back in 2023. But bulk-billing is still too low for Australians who don't have a concession card. That's why we're going to roll out bulk-billing incentives for those Australians for the first time from 1 November this year. Bulk-billing, as we know, was in freefall when we came to government, and it's no mystery why.”
“We've delivered more care minutes to every aged-care resident, delivered better wages to aged-care workers to allow providers to recruit and retain the workers we need to provide better food in aged-care facilities—”
“I thank the member for Blair. He knows aged care well, having held the portfolio for Labor for a number of years. He knows that we, on this side of the House, over the last few years, have had no higher priority than strengthening Medicare and strengthening aged care, because aged care when we came to government was in the worst state it had been in in the more than 30 years that I had been working with that sector—tragically summed up by the royal commission in one word, the title to their interim report, which was 'neglect'. We were utterly determined to turn that around. I don't think there was a single policy area where we made decisions to invest more money in the last term than in aged care, to deliver RNs 24/7—registered nurses on shift all the time. They said it couldn't be done, and we've delivered it.”
“Already, I'm really pleased to report that in just nine weeks more than 20,000 Australian women have taken up that new opportunity. There are many more measures to take effect from our women's health package later this year, but already our determination to strengthen women's health is making a real difference.”
“In this past year, we've listed three cutting-edge oral contraceptive pills, three cutting-edge menopausal hormone treatments and two cutting-edge medicines to treat endometriosis, saving women millions and millions of dollars they shouldn't have been paying in the first place. Already, I'm pleased to report that, since those listings, 365,000 Australian women have accessed more than 700,000 cheaper scripts as a direct result of the decisions that we took. On 1 July, as part of our package, we also introduced a new, longer, much better funded GP consult service to support women going through menopause and perimenopause to ensure that women, at that point in their life, get the best possible information, advice and support, which, frankly, had not been happening enough in years gone by.”
“Women consume about 60 per cent of health services in this country—often not because they're sick but just because they are women managing their own and, by extension, their family's reproductive health and planning or because they're going through menopause and perimenopause. The truth is that, for decades, Australia's women had not been getting the support that they deserved and that they needed. There had not been a new oral contraceptive pill put onto the PBS for more than 30 years, not a new medicine for endometriosis for more than 30 years and not a new menopausal hormone treatment for more than 20 years, forcing Australia's women to pay top dollar for the best medicines available on the market. We've changed that.”
“Thank you to the member for Gorton for that question and for joining us and so many other female colleagues in the Labor Party this morning to celebrate Women's Health Week. Others who joined were Assistant Minister White, who has responsibility for delivering the government's women's health agenda; Assistant Minister Kearney, who crafted that agenda; and the wonderful Robyn Smith, a terrific and powerful advocate for better women's health, who told her powerful story of going through menopause early in life after removing her ovaries and fallopian tubes to protect against a very high risk that she has of inherited cancer. This was a group of women channelling the voices of literally millions of Australian women, who remind us that you cannot be serious about strengthening Medicare without being serious about strengthening women's health.”
“In summary The consequential and transitional bill makes necessary amendments to ensure the Australian CDC strengthens our national public health system—by assuming some existing powers, and by adding more expertise and advanced capabilities to exercise these powers. This will lay the foundation for a more resilient, accountable and responsive system—protecting the health and wellbeing of all Australians. I commend this bill to the chamber. Debate adjourned.”
“The amendment to the FOI Act reinforces this protection by making clear that certain information held by the Australian CDC will not be subject to release under freedom of information requests or under the director-general's duty to publish public health advice. This strikes a careful balance between the public right to information and the need to safeguard sensitive information that should not be published. Transitional provisions The consequential and transition bill facilitates a smooth transition from existing acts to the new Australian CDC. It provides clarity to ensure old arrangements under those relevant acts it amends continue seamlessly under the new Australian CDC's administration and its director-general.”
“The Australian CDC will be enabled to do so through the Australian Centre for Disease Control Bill 2025. The Australian CDC's expanded functions will be considered following an independent review of the CDC's operations and funding in 2028. Repeal of the ANPHA Act 2010 is consistent with, and reflected in, the new remit of the Australian CDC as a contemporary public health authority. This repeal provision provides a clear path for the Australian CDC's future focus on non-communicable diseases. Freedom of Information Act 1982 This bill also amends schedule 3 of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act). The Australian CDC will be bound by strong safeguards designed to protect certain information, including personal information, from inappropriate disclosure.”
“This will ensure the Australian CDC directly manages the registry to help reduce and improve our understanding of preventable occupational respiratory diseases. Australian National Preventative Health Agency Act 2010 The bill repeals the old Australian National Preventative Health Agency Act 2010. The Australian National Preventative Health Agency (ANPHA) was established by a former Labor Government to support the prevention of chronic disease. Following a decision by the next administration, ANPHA ceased operations on 30 June 2014, and its functions transferred to the Department of Health. While not its initial focus, the Australian CDC is expected to take on expanded functions related to non-communicable diseases, including in areas like chronic disease, over time.”
“The National Focal Point (NFP) will also be transferred from the health secretary to the Director-General of the CDC. This ensures that the director-general is the central point of contact for significant public health events affecting Australia, in and beyond our borders. meeting Australia's requirements as a party to the International Health Regulations. Administration of the Security Sensitive Biological Agents (SSBA) Scheme will also transfer to the CDC. National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry Act 2023 A core capability and focus of the Australian CDC will be the enhanced use of public health data—including data on non-communicable diseases and issues at the interface between human health and environmental health. This bill transfers responsibility for the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry to the CDC.”
“The role of the Chief Medical Officer will change with the establishment of the Australian CDC and its status as a new national public health agency in my portfolio. This bill confers the role of the Director of Human Biosecurity under the Biosecurity Act 2015 to the health secretary instead of the Chief Medical Officer to reflect this. National Health Security Act 2007 This bill amends the National Health Security Act 2007. The Australian CDC will take on responsibility for coordinating surveillance data from states and territories for diseases on the National Notifiable Disease List. It will be responsible for ensuring that—together with the Minister for Health—the list is contemporary and includes relevant diseases that present risks to public health.”
“Biosecurity Act 2015 This bill will establish a role for the Director-General of the CDC under the Biosecurity Act 2015. The director-general will have the ability to determine listed human diseases—a key decision which determines which human diseases are monitored at Australia's borders and where efforts are focussed to prevent their spread domestically and abroad. This will ensure the Australian CDC protects Australians from the human diseases it determines as having the greatest threat to our nation. The Australian CDC will be required under the Biosecurity Act to provide advice on human health risks if needed to support the analysis of the biosecurity risk of imported goods for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.”
“I move: That this bill be now read a second time. The Australian Centre for Disease Control (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2025 supports the establishment of the new Australian Centre for Disease Control. It amends three existing acts in order to transfer certain public health responsibilities to the Australian CDC. These responsibilities will be discharged by the new CDC with the benefit of its independence, scientific and technical expertise, and access to advanced data analysis to better detect public health risks. These are important reforms to position the Australian CDC as the key advisor on public health actions taken by our government to protect the health of Australians. There will be another pandemic—the only question is when—and there continue today to be infectious disease outbreaks.”
“In summary This bill puts in place an enduring institution to ensure that Australia is better prepared, more united, and more accountable in the face of future public health threats. This is a pivotal reform that is long overdue—a permanent capability, built on evidence, and grounded in the hard-won lessons of recent years. We know there will be another pandemic, and the Australian CDC will make sure we are better prepared. I commend the bill to the chamber. Debate adjourned.”
“The Australian CDC presented in this bill today reflects this extensive consultation process and builds an institution that will have real impact. Review and evaluation The government understands the importance of growing the CDC in a sustainable way and monitoring and evaluating its effectiveness as its functions continue to grow. In addition to the independent review of the Australian CDC's funding and operations in 2028, the government is also committed to ensuring the legislation remains fit for purpose into the future. A legislated review every five years will provide an opportunity to ensure the act is working as intended to support the CDC's operations, particularly in improving the availability and use of data for public health benefit.”
“In doing so, they analysed evidence from Australian and international research. They undertook extensive consultation with officials from all levels of government, community groups, industry and business, unions, and experts across a range of fields. They sought public submissions and conducted hearings to learn from the diversity of Australians' experiences during the pandemic. The inquiry panel was clear in its findings: Australia must never again enter into a public health crisis without a national public health authority or robust data. The report laid bare the costs of fragmented governance, a lack of national leadership, and weak surveillance systems. These shortcomings undermined both public trust and the effectiveness of our national response. This bill will close those gaps permanently.”
“Data functions have been developed using a 'privacy-by-design' approach, which means that privacy and transparency have been considered at every stage of the legislative development process and the operational rollout of the CDC. Policy development and consultation The Australian CDC established by this bill is the culmination of more than three years of policy development and public consultation. It delivers a CDC to respond to global health threats, and those already in our backyard. It is a CDC that strengthens Australia and helps us prepare for the future. In September 2023 the government asked the COVID-19 response inquiry panel to look at Australia's responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The independent panel of experts was asked to consider opportunities for systems to more effectively anticipate, adapt and respond to pandemics.”
“This bill will close this gap so future decisions are driven by comprehensive, connected data to protect every Australian. The Australian CDC will deliver a modern approach to national public health data to enable more accurate and faster detection of risks, more consistent responses across borders, and a stronger foundation for national public health planning. But the CDC won't act alone—Australians expect all levels of government to work together when public health is on the line. That is why this bill streamlines data sharing and authorises linkage across the Commonwealth, and with state and territory governments who choose to do so, to support public health activities. The bill includes strong safeguards to ensure that any data sharing serves the public interest without compromising privacy.”
“The role of data At the heart of the Australian CDC is a commitment to using and enhancing the value of data and information. In a crisis, decision-makers need the best available evidence—at jurisdictional and national level—to make decisions quickly. The COVID-19 response inquiry laid bare some significant shortcomings in our pandemic response. Some key decisions were made without sufficient evidence about risks, benefits, or the wider social and economic impacts. This lack of data undermined the ability of our leaders to respond proportionally at times. Critically, it was not—and still is not—possible to bring together essential information such as vaccination status, health service utilisation, mortality and key population characteristics with data about who was infected by COVID-19.”
“This is a strong step towards rebuilding trust with the Australian people on decisions made on public health policies and the evidence behind these decisions. Sometimes evidence is strong; sometimes evidence is ambiguous and only gets clearer with time, but the public deserve the honesty of having this acknowledged and the data explained. It's something the independent COVID-19 Response Inquiry recommended—and something our government believes is critical. Our government recognises that public health recommendations and decisions have real impacts on the lives and the wellbeing of individual Australians. The publication requirement will help improve confidence, counter misinformation and disinformation, and give communities and businesses the information they need to act effectively during future crises.”
“To support progress towards closing the gap, at least one member of the advisory council must be an Aboriginal person or a Torres Strait Islander and must have expertise in the health needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The CDC will also have partnerships and relationships with many in the public health community. One of the most powerful messages of the COVID-19 pandemic was that Australians deserve transparency in public-health decision-making. Transparency is key to building and maintaining the trust of the community. The Australian CDC will be required to publish the advice it provides to governments and decision-makers, to ensure the visibility of its advice in the decision-making process.”