| Preventative Health Taskforce Targets ‘Our Drinking Culture’ – 1 September 2009 |
|
|
|
|
The Preventative Health Taskforce Report provides the Rudd Government with a solid health and wellbeing platform to change the drinking culture in “We need to see politicians at all levels of government adopt a bipartisan approach and work together to achieve the outcomes envisaged by the Taskforce Chair, Mr Rob Moodie, and his team. The graduated long-term approach from 2010 through to 2020 is one supported by ADCA.” Mr Templeman said ADCA was encouraged that the Government, and in particular the Taskforce, had heard and acted on the consistent messages regarding alcohol-related harm put on the national agenda over the past two years. “ADCA’s call for changes in the areas of alcohol availability, advertising/ marketing, labelling, risk awareness, Indigenous communities, families and health options, and enhanced data collection have been mirrored in the Taskforce recommendations,” Mr Templeman said. “As Prime Minister Rudd stated on 27 July when launching the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission Report, our health system only starts caring about people’s health when they get sick, instead of investing to keep them fit and well as long as possible. He stressed that we need to maximise our focus on prevention, as prevention is better than a cure. | Mr Templeman said the Prime Minister went on to say that if health services continued to be provided on the basis of business-as-usual, with no policy change, health and aged care costs were forecast to rise sharply from the current nine per cent of GDP, to 12.4 per cent of GDP in a little over two decades from now. “ADCA will continue to provide a strong voice and leadership for the AOD sector, to bring about positive change in the community,” Mr Templeman said. “At present, one in five of us frequently drink to excess, and one in 10 drink at chronic harm levels. The targets announced today are to substantially reduce drinking patterns by 30 per cent in each instance.” Mr Templeman said to achieve this will require the highest level of leadership and commitment in order to drive significant cultural reform. This will necessitate action specifically around drinking alcohol safely, attitudinal change (acknowledging that Alcohol is a Drug – TOO!), as well as pricing and promotion reform. “All Australians should sit up and take notice of the Taskforce recommendations which address our alarming drinking culture,” Mr Templeman said. Media Enquiries: Brian Flanagan, Manager Strategic Communications and Policy 02 6215 9802 (w), 0400 860 058 (m) |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|