Wednesday, 7 February 2024

Health and wellbeing data

David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (17:44): (681) My adjournment matter this evening is for the attention of the Minister for Health. It is exactly one year since I raised the issue of a biennial report on the public health of Victorians being absent from publication. As I stated at the time:

Section 21(c) of the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 establishes a requirement for the chief health officer:

to publish on a biennial basis and make available in an accessible manner to members of the public a comprehensive report on public health and wellbeing in Victoria …

In response to my previous adjournment exactly one year ago the Minister for Health responded that a report was being developed and would be published as required under the act. Perhaps it got lost when Mr Sutton left his role. But while there were no doubt more important things to worry about during the pandemic, surely it does not take a year for the highest paid health bureaucrats in the state to write a report detailing a snapshot of the health of Victorians. The previous CHO did not seem to be able to fulfil this statutory requirement, but since July last year we have had a new CHO.

Times are tough, and I understand that the government is cutting back on lavish spending, so perhaps this report is not actually a good use of taxpayer money. Therefore I will amend my previous request and ask the Minister for Health to either ensure this report is published or amend the Public Health and Wellbeing Act to remove this statutory requirement.

The PRESIDENT: There have been a couple of these. The first action? That is all right.