Ellen Phiddian
Cosmos science journalist
With a milestone in its development looming large, the Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC) is expected to take the stage in the middle of next year, but health bodies and experts are saying that funding for the permanent centre can’t wait.
Australia is the only OECD country without a CDC.
The Labor Party committed to setting one up ahead of the 2022 election and, upon winning government, provided $90.9 million in funding for an interim CDC in the 2023-24 Budget.
The interim CDC is funded until 30 June 2025, after which a standalone CDC is expected to take its place.
But according to a joint statement released on Wednesday by several health bodies, the election due next year might throw the CDC’s future into doubt.
The Government must hold a federal election before 27 September 2025, and will likely call one before 30 June next year.
“The voters will determine who leads the next Australian government, and we’re uncertain of the commitment with regard to the Opposition in relation to the future of the CDC,” says Terry Slevin, CEO of the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA).
The PHAA issued the statement with the Royal Australian College of Physicians, the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases and the Climate and Health Alliance, calling on the Albanese government to “urgently” fund the permanent CDC.
“It may be that the legislation won’t get through the current parliament because of the backlog,” says Slevin.
“But the government can make a substantial financial commitment to the CDC.”
Slevin says that, depending on the scope of the organisation, such a commitment should be “in the hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and in certain circumstances, even well beyond that”.
Professor Ben Marais, director of the Infectious Diseases Institute at the University of Sydney, says that a CDC can provide better-coordinated disease surveillance, data linkage, and preparedness, than Australia’s current institutions. It can also guide national public health policy, and provide public health expertise and international liaison.
“If we do not get it across the line now, when will we ever?” says Marais.
“There are increasing health threats – domestically and internationally – that require urgent preparedness and national strategic planning .”
Professor Allen Cheng, director of infectious diseases at Monash Health and a researcher at Monash University, agrees.
“An Australian CDC would be the ‘glue’ for public health – at the moment, the states and territory health departments are effectively like independent countries. A CDC would help in very tangible ways,” says Cheng.
“The best time to have had a CDC would have been before the pandemic, the second best time is now.”
A report on the inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic – a major impetus for the CDC’s establishment – will be released today, after being extended from its original 30 September deadline.
“I haven’t seen the report or its recommendations, and so all I can do is speculate, but I would be astounded if there wasn’t a very strong recommendation to ensure a CDC is established and properly resourced and run in a manner that can effectively operate with states and territories around Australia,” says Slevin.
In a future pandemic, says Slevin, a CDC would be able to ensure that measures like disease tracking and restrictions “have all been run on a national basis in a consistent manner, to the highest possible quality standards, so that each of the 8 jurisdictions didn’t have to start from scratch and create some of their own”.
A CDC could also run pandemic preparedness operations “so as to identify chinks in the system”, says Slevin – any faults in quarantine, vaccination rollout, or finding out how the disease spreads. Prior to the pandemic, Australia had not run one of these drills since 2008.
“Also in the scope of the CDC, as per the election commitment, is the prevention of chronic diseases,” says Slevin.
“We know they’re, by far and away, the most significant burden of disease in people in Australia – cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancers, dementia.”
It might also, according to the Climate and Health Alliance, help to frame Australia’s health response to climate change.
“Even if we just simply restrict it to the contribution of the healthcare system when it comes to emissions contributing to climate change, that will be a significant step forward,” says Slevin.
“Given the many billions of dollars that the pandemic cost us, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” says Cheng.
A spokesperson for Mark Butler, Federal Minister for Health and Aged Care, told Cosmos that work is underway to establish the stand-alone Australian CDC.
“We have established the interim Australian Centre for Disease Control, which is already significantly strengthening Australia’s preparedness for future pandemics,” says the spokesperson.
“The interim Australian CDC has already built-up Australia’s surveillance capabilities, improved Australia’s use of data, and has taken a One Health and ‘all hazards’ approach –putting our country on a much stronger footing to respond to future public health threats such as pandemics.”
