Wednesday, 14 May 2025

Health services

Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (18:30): (1628) My adjournment is for the Minister for Health, and the action I am seeking is for Victoria’s local public health units to have guaranteed funding in the long term.

Uncertainty has been brewing about the status of public health units that were stood up in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It begs the question: what is going on with the state of health in Victoria? Since the widespread investment into public health in response to the pandemic in 2019, the government seems to have returned disease prevention to the bottom of the to-do list. The need for a sustained and robust public health system is in no way reduced and in fact has never been more important. While we are not currently experiencing a worldwide pandemic, the next one may only be around the corner, with a terrifying avian flu outbreak currently wreaking havoc across many species around the globe. On a globalised planet experiencing rapid climate change, the question regarding a future pandemic is not if, it is when.

In my own electorate of Western Victoria childhood vaccination rates across half of the local government areas have fallen below the rate required for herd immunity. It reflects a national trend where coverage rates for all children at the age of one is on the decline. In the meantime we are facing a significant measles outbreak. Victoria has recorded 27 cases this year, bringing our national total to over 60 cases, which is already more than recorded throughout the entirety of last year. Australia is not alone – declining vaccination rates overseas in countries such as the US are causing similarly unprecedented outbreaks.

Then there are other serious and previously well contained infectious diseases rearing their heads in our communities. I have raised this one before: there were four cases of congenital syphilis in Victoria in 2023, compared to a total of two in the 25 years prior to 2017. Other sexually transmitted diseases are on the increase as well, like chlamydia and gonorrhoea. In the meantime we are still without a chief health officer, and the sentiment lingers: why has it been such a difficult position to recruit for? It might have something to do with the state of the Department of Health, which has faced the brunt of public sector cuts over the past two years, or it might have something to do with the fact that this government is more interested in announcing new hospitals than it is in committing to long-term primary and preventative health initiatives like the public health units.

During both budget estimates in 2023 the then health secretary Euan Wallace highlighted the government’s commitment to public health units and their role in managing our response to over 80 communicable diseases. Minister, what has changed?