Tuesday, 22 September 2026

 Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (23:45): (2823) My adjournment matter is for the Premier, and the action I seek is for the government to guarantee the future of VicHealth as an independent, properly funded health promotion agency. In the final months of his time in this Parliament, our friend and colleague Tim Read had a number of things that he zeroed in on and was determined to see changed. In recent weeks two of those have moved. After years of campaigning by Tim and the Greens, group voting tickets have finally been abolished, and we are currently considering legislation to strengthen IBAC, drawing on reforms recommended by the Integrity and Oversight Committee inquiry that Tim chaired.

The third thing that Tim was very focused on was anchored in his professional experience before politics but was perhaps the most personal: saving VicHealth. The government has given VicHealth a reprieve, confirming there will be no funding cut in 2026–27. That is welcome, but it is by no means a secure future for this vital agency. The government still intends to absorb VicHealth into the Department of Health, ending its nearly 40 years as an independent health promotion foundation. For Tim this was never an abstract argument about simple machinery of government. He had decades of experience as a doctor and medical researcher, and after his cancer diagnosis he spoke about how public health campaigns like SunSmart might have changed his own risk if those messages had existed when he was young. That is what prevention means. It means fewer people getting sick in the first place; fewer people needing surgery, chemotherapy or years of treatment; fewer hospital beds occupied by people with illnesses that we could have prevented; fewer families sitting beside someone they love in their last days; fewer funerals and less grief.

Apart from being the right thing to do, the smart thing to do and the kind thing to do, it is simply good economics. Every dollar invested in health protection and promotion returns, on average, more than $14 in benefits. Preventable chronic disease already places enormous pressure on our hospitals, health workers and budgets. We spend vast amounts treating illness once it has happened. The wisdom of VicHealth has always been to invest a comparatively smaller amount early, stopping smoking, preventing skin cancer, supporting healthier food and physical activity, reducing alcohol harm and researching what actually keeps people well. A one-year funding reprieve is not enough. Prevention requires independence, expertise and investment in long-term thinking that goes beyond electoral cycles. Premier, I implore you: please honour Tim’s work by making this protection permanent. Reverse the decision to abolish VicHealth as an independent agency, protect its funding beyond 2026–27 and let it continue what it was always created to do: prevent disease, save lives, save hospital costs and spare families avoidable grief.