Program overview Law is a powerful tool to promote public health. Yet despite Australia’s leadership in areas like tobacco control and road safety, law remains underused as a tool to promote healthy and sustainable population diets. The Food Governance Program seeks to change this. Our aim is to improve dietary intake at scale by monitoring the global food supply, assessing food policy impacts, and strategically strengthening food policies and regulations to promote health and sustainability. Program objectives Monitor and evaluate the performance of existing food policies and regulations by leveraging the Institute’s FoodSwitch dataset Analyse regulatory innovation worldwide to develop recommendations on best-practice food regulation Work closely with UN agencies, national and state governments, public health and consumer organisations and academic collaborators to translate evidence into effective law and policy change. View projects

Establish a purpose-built Australian Centre for Disease Control that addresses and accelerates action on the prevention, management and treatment of noncommunicable diseases. Tackling Australia’s biggest health challenge – noncommunicable diseases – requires a greater focus on preventing disease and improving food systems. The Australian Centre for Disease Control, launching on 1 January 20261 should be fit-for-purpose, permanent and focused on addressing both infectious diseases and the national epidemic of noncommunicable diseases. This should be coupled with accountability for the full resourcing, implementation, monitoring and enforcement of the National Preventive Health Strategy2 and National Obesity Strategy.3 This includes, but is not limited to, government-led, mandatory regulations on Front-of-pack labelling – Health Star Rating, Food reformulation – to improve the nutritional value of packaged food, including by reducing salt,sugar, saturated fats and

Implement a blended payment model for primary health care providers, supporting the transition of individual practices and encouraging patients to enrol in such models of care. Early detection and effective management of noncommunicable diseases requires a patient-centred, affordable and accessible health system. While Australia’s health system performs well overall, there are opportunities to improve accessibility and navigation for patients. Minimising out-of-pocket health expenses will help ensure that more Australians can access the care they need without facing financial hardship. There is a clear need to implement a new blended payment model for primary health care providers, one that supports a multidisciplinary, team-based health care that better meets patient needs. Under this model, 60% of funding wouldcome through Medicare fee-for-service system, while the remaining 40% is intended to enable other healthcare professionals to join primary care teams to fund a comprehensive pa

Develop and implement First Nations-led climate action plans that address climate emergency impacts alongside food and water insecurity, as well as health prevention, management and treatment. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the First Peoples of Australia. Yet, the ongoing impact of colonisation, including racism, continues to have profound and detrimental impacts on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. This has led to disproportionate and inequitable health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Despite successive policies aimed at improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, progress to “close the gap” on health outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is not on track. Different ways of thinking about rectifying health inequities faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are needed, that prioritise self-determination, First Nations knowledges, cultural expression, and connection to Countr