In public health, prevention is better than cure – so why aren’t our cities funded to prevent disease?

Date: Wednesday, 16th October 2024

Time: 3:00pm—4:00pm

Location: Chau Chak Wing Museum

In 2018/19, the Australian government spent $180 billion on health. Less than 2% of this was dedicated to public health to deal with the prevention of ill health, and the promotion of healthy lifestyles. Instead, money flows freely to medical treatments, surgical interventions and drug therapies. We rush to treat the public when they are sick, yet fail to prevent illness in the first place.

Much of the burden of Australia’s most costly and devastating diseases could be reduced by better urban planning. Incidences of cardio-vascular diseases associated with physical inactivity, respiratory illnesses linked to car-dependency, and mental conditions associated with social isolation, for example, are tempered by access to public and active transport, quality and plentiful natural open spaces, and neighbourhoods that facilitate regular and convivial interactions with community.

Yet the way we allocate health funding consistently neglects urban form and function as a determinant of health outcomes. While local governments fight for small infrastructure grants to fund bike paths, our hospitals spend $400 million/year treating heart conditions associated with a lack of physical activity in daily life. In this session, we explore how this has come to be, how it might change, and why a reorientation of health spending towards prevention through better cities is central to human flourishing into the future.

Confirmed Speakers

Professor Fran Baum, Public Health Social Scientist, Professor of Health Equity, The Stretton Institute, University of Adelaide

Professor Melanie Davern, Director, Australian Urban Observatory, RMIT University

Estelle Grech, Urban Planner & Policy Specialist, Committee for Sydney

Chaired by

Dr Patrick Harris, Senior Research Fellow, Acting Director at the Centre for Health Equity Training, University of New South Wales

Professor Fran Baum AO is a public health social scientist with a special interest in creating healthy, equitable and sustainable societies. She is a professor of health equity, The Stretton Institute, The University of Adelaide, Australia. She received an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for her public health service. She is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and of the Australian Health Promotion Association. She is a past National President and Life Member of the Public Health Association of Australia. Fran is an activist academic who advocates for a fairer, more sustainable and healthy world.

Melanie Davern has research interest and expertise in both public health and urban planning customised for direct application in policy, planning and industry. This has been developed through long standing interest and knowledge in the development of social, economic and environmental indicators, individual and community wellbeing derived from complex research investigating the connection between the social determinants of health, public health outcomes and urban planning and design. These cross disciplinary areas describe my expertise, passion, dedication and reputation for the translation of this research into practice. This knowledge is more simply communicated as liveability research combined through the learnings of public health and urban planning to create real world impact from research evidence.

Estelle Grech is an urban planner, passionate about improving social equity in cities. With experience in local government, consulting, and as a senior advisor in the NSW Government, she now leads planning and housing policy at the Committee for Sydney.

A Churchill Fellowship recipient, Estelle recently travelled to over 13 cities across Europe and the US to research how to design better cities for women and girls. She has worked on a wide variety of projects, from community and cultural strategies to affordable housing studies, and has overseen the development of initiatives such as the Safer Cities program, Greater Sydney Parklands and policies to increase women in construction.

Dr Patrick Harris is a senior research fellow and acting director at the Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation (chetre.org/). He is an applied public health social scientists who is interested in complex real world policy issues, co-located at UNSW and South Western Sydney Local Health District. His interest is addressing health equity through public policy specialising in the intersections of health and equity with infrastructure and urban planning. He recently published a book: 'Illuminating Policy for Health: Insights from a Decade of Researching Urban and Regional Planning' with Palgrave MacMillan.

Festival of Public Urbanism 2024

Great cities are defined by the quality of their public realm. From parks to civic architecture, well designed public infrastructure supports and enables the social, cultural, and economic dimensions of urban life. But are these public assets, along with public processes of urban governance and planning, under attack? Over the past fifty years key legacies of the modern urban project – such as publicly funded housing and urban infrastructure; or comprehensive planning for new development – have been eroded by waves of political and economic reform. Faith in market based ‘solutions’ has reduced public planning processes to ‘red tape’ and replaced public investment in rental housing with subsidies for private investors and households. At the same time, digital transformation under ‘platformisation’ has seen private corporations able to evade domestic regulations, disrupting every facet of urban life and governance.

The Festival of Public Urbanism will debate these topics and more. Join us to engage with academics, activists, politicians, industry leaders through our program of panel discussions, walking tours, and podcasts across Sydney and Australia.