Health and the Environment - Australian Conservation Foundation

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tela: environment, economy and society issue 1 june 1999page26The document defines the field of environmental health, and sets out the notion of chartersfor entitlements and responsibilities for individuals, communities, business and government.The section on strategic management asks how best to mould current structures to increasemanagement effectiveness, and calls for the development of a National EnvironmentalHealth Committee to report to the National Public Health Partnership. Discussion pointsincluded: improvements in environmental health will require greater application of riskassessment and management; the promulgation of environmental health standards;information systems; a larger work-force; and greater public participation.Readers of the present paper are urged to study the Commonwealth’s document. Althoughthe period for consultation on this document concluded in November 1998, the developmentof a national environmental health policy is clearly a slow process. As we await the definitivepolicy document, it is worth considering what might also be required.
What policies and actionsare needed for the future?The National Public Health Partnership’s discussion document stimulated debate around thecountry. However, many of the recommendations took the form of statements of principlesestablished elsewhere and sometimes long ago, rather than proposing any new or measurableaction. It is important that the final policy statement includes some concrete proposals,which very few reports to date have done.page27A primary problem lies in the development of interjurisdictional relationships. Departmentalboundaries in government tend to be relatively impermeable unless there are processes inplace which force interdepartmental collaboration. The challenges issued by reports onecologically sustainable development have not yet resulted in collaborative efforts in theenvironment and health area that can serve as models for the partnerships required.Whatever we do in the future must facilitate collaboration between departments.It has not been clear that an environmental health policy would attract significant resources,so there may have been a self-censoring tendency within the Department of Health to avoidproposals that look costly. This problem could have a circularity: if a new policy proposallooks modest, then it will not need more than a cosmetic reallocation of resources. In the1998 budget, $14 million was allocated to a national environmental health strategy. Will thesefunds be truly additional, or will they simply represent the continuation of current activitiesunder a new banner? Clear statements have not been made.The document suggests arrangements for management and coordination of environmentalhealth issues, to emanate essentially from the recommendations of a new committee.The beginnings of the National Public Health Partnership were noted above; any additionalcommittee (the National Council on Environmental Health is the proposed designation)must have a very clear role if it is to add value. The Commonwealth apparently intends tomake the national environmental health policy dependent on the fate of the National PublicHealth Partnership. If the tide of resources comes in, will all boats – a national partnership,and a growing number of national strategies – rise?In their submission about the document, the Public Health Association proposed a fullyindependent council, reporting directly to ministers of health and environment. More inputof independent advice is certainly needed, as governments at all levels have downsized to thepoint where they lack the sufficient professional capacity for the complex task of developingecologically sustainable environmental health policy.
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Health and the Environment - Australian Conservation Foundation

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