“The recent federal budget typifies the prevention paradox. The pressure is off, the spread of infection is slowing and the hospital systems are not having to deal with pandemic overloading,” writes political columnist MICHAEL MOORE.

Prevention works. However, it is frustrating to work in an area where the more successful you are, the less you are recognised, and the less support is provided. 

Look at public health, intelligence services and across the broad spectrum of prevention.

Over the last 50 years some 154 million lives have been saved through immunisation around just 14 diseases. Most of these have been children under five, and around two-thirds were children under one year old. Research by the WHO, including local associate professor Meru Sheel, also revealed the devastating finding that vaccination has declined since the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the Albanese government came to power there were constant verbal commitments regarding the importance of prevention and the establishment of an Australian Centre for Disease Control (ACDC). The pandemic restrictions were still uppermost in voters’ minds.

The promise of the Albanese government in establishing an ACDC was to “ensure ongoing pandemic preparedness, lead the federal response to future infectious disease outbreaks, and work to prevent ongoing non-communicable (chronic) as well as communicable (infectious) diseases”.

The community is no longer feeling the pain of the pandemic. The recent federal budget typifies the prevention paradox. The pressure is off, the spread of infection is slowing, the hospital systems are not having to deal with pandemic overloading.

The Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) has pointed out, “the long-awaited national Centre for Disease Control was a key promise, but it is being delivered too slowly, and with a trimmed mission”. Complacency is the enemy of prevention. A well-funded ACDC is key to prevention in health and preparedness for the next outbreak. 

The CEO of the PHAA, Terry Slevin, described this failure as “pandemic amnesia” and said Labor is “falling short on prevention”.

The ACDC should also be sharpening the government’s focus on prevention in areas other than communicable disease. These include investing in research and policy implementation in areas such as “tackling obesity, the impacts of alcohol and any other drivers of poor health”.

The PHAA did point to some of the preventive health investments in the budget: “On tobacco and vaping control, the current government has a very good story to tell about saving health and lives. In this budget there is some welcome funding for new and extended cancer screening programs, and a focus on eliminating HIV”.

The ACDC was set up within the Department of Health with an investment of $90 million over a three-year period. However, until now, it has largely remained silent. It is not a lack of goodwill but, rather, a lack of funding that has deprived the organisation of the wings it needs.

Prevention works. However, it remains a major challenge for governments to take a seriously long-term approach to invest in such a sensible approach.

Another example of the prevention paradox

Our intelligence services provide another example of the prevention paradox.

Peter Khalid is the member for Wills and chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. He highlighted issues facing Australian Security and Intelligence Services (ASIO) staff and the staff of other intelligence services when addressing legislation the committee had examined.

The more successful the organisation – the analysts, the frontline workers and the system – the less is heard about the possible disasters that have been prevented. 

Mr Khalid pointed out that “last year alone, a cybersecurity incident was reported every six minutes”, as he underlined that the important protective work of the intelligence services is rarely noticed when all is going well – just when there is bad news.

Legislation to facilitate the work of ASIO is before the federal parliament. The emphasis of the debate was about keeping Australians safe from foreign interference and from home-grown extremist acts. 

Paradoxically, when things go wrong, those who work in prevention are finally noticed.

Mr Khalid assured the parliament that the intention of the legislation is to ensure a “more agile” organisation and to facilitate “strengthening identity protections for those security agencies’ employees, improving operational flexibility”. 

He explained the reasoning: “Security threats are becoming more and more asymmetric… more and more complex. They’re becoming more and more difficult to combat and to defend against”. 

The prevention paradox is real and governments need to become more and more aware as multiple threats provide challenges well beyond health and security. 

Michael Moore is a former member of the ACT Legislative Assembly and an independent minister for health. He has been a political columnist with “CityNews” since 2006.