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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-11-14 Daily Xml
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Preventative Health

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (14:34): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Will the minister update the council on the government's action on preventative health?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:34): I thank the honourable member for his question, Mr President, through you. The Marshall Liberal government was elected with a strong commitment to preventative health, and our first budget has demonstrated this. One of the commitments of that budget was $1 million for rural and regional communities to support preventative health initiatives under the banner SA Healthy Towns Challenge. Recently, I was able to announce the six winning applications for the inaugural round.

The six winners, who will each receive a share of the $250,000 allocated to this year's challenge, are the following: firstly, the Fregon Anangu School in the APY lands, with a project centred on visits by youth to address health and wellbeing issues contributing to obesity and diabetes; the Dunjiba Community Council in Oodnadatta where the funding will support a bike-gifting program to build a community-owned fleet, upgrade a bike track and run maintenance workshops, among other activities; UnitingCare SA in Port Pirie, where the activities of the Port Pirie Community Foodhub will encourage healthy eating, disease prevention and minimising lead absorption; the Community Cooperative Store in the Barossa, which aims to increase rural people's motivation and capacity to be active and eat healthily in a supportive community context; the Wakefield Regional Council, with the production of a community garden that comprises complementary programs, including a weekly green gym and nutrition and dietetics workshops—

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: Point of order, Mr President: the minister appears to be reading almost directly from the SA Health website, so that is already on the public record.

The PRESIDENT: Minister.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: It is a valid point of order. Refrain from reading publicly available information.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The dietetics workshop provides a shadehouse to engage people in their community and to contribute to positive physical and mental health and wellbeing; and lastly, to the Wudinna District Council, where the program aims to enhance and develop shared walking paths.

The applications give a snapshot of the wide range of health concerns in regional communities and the passion within country communities to address them. It stands in stark contrast to the appalling failure to invest in preventative health by the former Labor government. Following the 2012 McCann review, the former Labor government significantly disinvested in preventative health, completely disregarding the social and economic determinants of health. This government is very proud to be putting back in place a holistic approach to health so that right from the earlier prevention stages right through to the acute care we're providing South Australians with a range of health services they need, not just a hospital-centric approach such as Labor's failed Transforming Health experiment.

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