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May 23, 2006
In launching the Tim Wright (ed.), Time for Change book at the Paperchain Bookshop in Manuka, Canberra, Julia Gillard, Labor's health spokeswoman, said that the reporting of politics tended to focus on the personalities at the expense of promoting discussions around public policy. She said:
...politics has been narrowed down to a political contest with personalities....there is a sense of who won, who lost and who made the play of the day. But this is not politics at all---the real stuff of politics is a contest of values and ideas about how to make a better nation.
This is the politics as a sporting contest view of politics of the Canberra Press Gallery that is based on reading minute signs and moods:
Allan Moir
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that in her chapter in the book Gillard argues for fresh thinking in health policy and that progress is being paralysed by a conservative Howard Government's resistance to change.
Gillard says hospital delays, inadequate services for the aged and mentally ill, and a health system straining under layers of administration show the need for a thorough rethink of health. She then argues broadly for a more patient-focused system that places more emphasis on preventative care to reduce chronic illnesses, and rebuilds what she calls the "public realm".
Gillard says that Australia should be doing more to combat diseases like diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease, all of which were at least 50 per cent preventable.This could be done by developing population health measures to ensure that people did not go to the doctor when feeling ill but have appropriate continuing contact to manage their health, identify risk factors and to be screened to help early diagnosis.
She says that if we are to surmount the situation of health services under pressure, overworked staff and governments shifting blame, the we must open our minds to new ways. Rather than addressing poor co-ordination and service delivery, or barriers to alternative types of care, spending had been focused "on short-term political fix-its".
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Common bloody sense.
Unfortunately, the political system leaves little room for common sense and a long term view.