Roxy and the Preventative Health Agency

[donniedarko]

Nicola Roxon has come out swinging today, and accused the opposition of opposing (who would have thought??) her plan to pass legislation allowing creation of a 'preventative health agency.

The opposition claims they want more meat on what the administration really wants to do with this agency (sounds fair enough).

This just sounds odd to me. Roxon's portfolio has received two groundbreaking pieces of public health papers this year - the National Hospitals and Health Reform Commission paper which promised sweeping changes to how australians receive their health care (e.g. a 'denticare' scheme), and then the Preventative Health Taskforce paper not long after.

On both instances, Roxon promised to review and consult further before responding to these recommendations - actions (correctly) pilloried by Turnbull's team as delaying tactics.

Yet today, Roxon attacks the opposition for demonstrating the very same caution in asking for more details on exactly what this new agency is meant to do (seems reasonable to me; surely we aren't too comfortable with a federal legislation being executed to let an agency do its work without knowing just what the hell the agency's job is?)

Roxon has good call to get stroppy with Turnball et al when it comes to introducing health reform - her chronic disease dental plan remains blocked in the Senate by Turnball; a plan which promised to deliver $55m to Queensland over 3 years to improve access to public dental services. Yet today's attack from Roxon lacks some credibility - hopefully more detail on this proposed agency will become available, and Australia can see some proactive health reform.