FARE’s submission to the Senate Inquiry into Australia’s domestic response to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Commission on Social Determinants of Health report: Closing the gap within a generation. Within this submission FARE has addressed each of the Terms of Reference of the Inquiry, making eight recommendations for the Commonwealth Government.
Recommendations
- That the Commonwealth Government develops and implements a new National Alcohol Strategy that is informed by the ‘Global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol’.
- That the Commonwealth Government supports the inclusion of a target for a ten per cent relative reduction in persons aged 15+ alcohol per capita consumption (APC) in the ‘Global monitoring framework and targets for the prevention and control of Non Communicable Diseases’(NCDs).
- That the Commonwealth Government adopts a social determinants of health approach in addressing fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) and implement the actions outlined in the ‘Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education’s Australian FASD Action Plan 2013-2016’.
- That the Commonwealth Government continues to provide funding for the Australian National Preventive Health Agency to coordinate policy development and programs to prevent alcohol-related harms.
- That the Commonwealth Government develops a national data repository for alcohol-related harms.
- That the South Australian, Victorian, Tasmanian and New South Wales Governments recommence the collection of alcohol sales data to better inform alcohol policy.
- That the National Perinatal Minimum Dataset includes standardised questions about alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
- That the Commonwealth Government adopts a ‘health in all policies’ approach to public policy development which includes the establishment of health benchmarks and monitoring structures to ensure cross government action is being implemented and targets achieved.
