President's update: Illicit tobacco, aged care, federal budget, and more

Hello and happy Friday!  

I hope you’ve all remembered to book ahead at the florist to celebrate your mum this weekend. To all the mums out there — thank you! Holding the mental load, wrangling kids (even grown-up kids) alongside your paid work makes all of you superwoman. I hope Sunday comes with some rest and relaxation. 

Despite the public holiday here in Queensland, on Monday I appeared before the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Reference Committee to give evidence about the health impacts of illicit tobacco. The hearing was not without controversy — as you may have heard, a large tobacco company was granted permission for a closed session with the committee. We’ve publicly criticised this decision in the interest of fairness and transparency to the public. 

In terms of our evidence, I made it clear that we need coordinated action across portfolios — health, border, police and others both jurisdictionally and federally — to close regulatory loopholes and to protect hard-won health gains against the impacts of black-market tobacco. But in that fight, we mustn’t weaken the effective regulation we have in place, including tobacco excise. Most Australians do not smoke. We must keep it that way. Making tobacco cheaper is not the answer. It’s been tried elsewhere and did not work. In fact, in Canada it led to more people, particularly young people taking up smoking and fewer quitting. 

Aged care is, in my mind, one of the most urgent issues facing our health system. We repeat “ageing population” ad nauseum, and yet our system seems woefully unprepared for how to meet the health and care needs of older Australians. On Tuesday night, our Medical Practice Committee focused on this very issue. Our members brought broad expertise across community and hospital medicine, metro, regional and rural practice to help advance AMA advocacy in aged care. Keep your eyes peeled throughout the year as we develop practical solutions to help protect the health of older Australians, and to enable doctors to provide the care these people need.  

The ongoing conflict in the Middle East continues to bring challenges to us all and I met again with the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing about impacts and responses in the health sector. If you are experiencing difficulties in sourcing medical supplies in your practice or the fuel crisis is affecting you and your patients please let us know by email president@ama.com.au as this information helps inform our advocacy.  Thank you to those of you who have provided feedback so far, which I passed on to the department this week. I’ll keep you up to date as things progress. 

I will be back in Canberra next week for the federal budget on Tuesday night to wrap up the past 6 months spent advocating for sensible, costed budget proposals. To be honest, we’re not expecting much on Tuesday, with the major announcement of funding for the recently signed NHRA already made. This additional $25 billion of funding for public hospitals is certainly welcome, but it's unlikely to be enough. We must now work across all levels of government to make sure the funding is put to good use, we get as much out of it as we can, and we continue to make clear arguments about where additional investment is needed to clear the hospital logjam. 

Times are tight and we aren’t expecting any surprise goodies on Tuesday. The budget will fall short on the broad reforms our system so desperately needs. But we will keep up the fight for all our asks, including better support for longer GP consultations, coordinated team care, meaningful private hospital reform, chronic disease prevention with a tax on sugar-sweetened drinks, and strategic health workforce planning and delivery. 

You’ll hear from me again after the budget. Who knows...maybe the reform fairy will visit after all? But I’m not holding my breath...