Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee, , 3:05:30 to 3:13:07
Discussion on the AIHW's 'Australia's Health 2026' report, focusing on editorial independence, ministerial briefings, and the timing of data releases.
Topics: Health, Integrity
Speakers: Dr Zoran Bolevich, Hon Anne Ruston, Blair Comley, Speaker 32, Unknown Speaker
Very good, thank you.
So um so I'm interested um your um report, Australia's Health 2026 was released in July. Um was a copy of that normally provided to the Minister prior to release for any you know comment response.
Uh with all of our reports we um put them on an embargoed version of our website than make it available to a range of stakeholders, including uh the department, the minister's office um expert committees that we uh use to advise us through the process of creating these reports. Uh and normally through the preparation of a large report like Australia's health, uh which is one of our two uh statutory reports, I would say. Um we do provide additional uh focused briefings for uh key stakeholders in the department and make an offer of providing a briefing to the minister's office, so I'm aware of that process.
Sure. Would you know how long before the release of the report that the it was provided under embargo to the the well either the minister's office and I um can I assume that um that it was also provided to the department?
Uh we'd probably have to take that one a note just to give you the exact dates.
Okay, sure.
Um it's a well-managed process that's been in place for a long time.
Sure. Um so I'm just interested to understand whether the minister or his office or the department provided any feedback or commentary. Um if so um what was it and was it and was your report in any way amended um following that advice?
Uh in relation to Australia's health report. Um I would I would say it's unlikely that we uh received any such uh feedback from the minister and minister's office, but we will have to take that and know this and confirm for you.
Yeah, so I just be keen to understand what your sort of your protocols or policies are in relation to highlighting um of government policies in AIHW documents.
As a general rule, um the AHW has full um authorship and editorial responsibility for our work and our reports in compiling our um work and our data and our results. We often receive expert advice and consult the various stakeholders at the time of um creating our reports, making sure that the um I guess any interpretations of the lacking of the data, etcetera, uh are correct um and and uh have the right expert input into them. But um in terms of the kind of wording type um editorial um input um that is that is that is uh really something that the AIHW has full control of.
Yeah, I suppose um just to note a in in your report um you um use the um the smoking and vaping rates um were from 2022-23, which in effect meant that they were three years out of date. I'm just interested why you chose to include this data when the most uh recent data was published a week later in a separate report.
Um well there's a very simple reason for that, and that is that um at the time that the Australia Health Report was developed and and written, that was the most recent data point that was available to the institute.
But don't you concede that it sort of looks a bit odd that you'd have had access to more recent smoking and vaping data? Um or you could have merely sought to move the release date by a week so that they included the most up to date figures. It just sort of seems a little odd to me in terms of the integrity of the reports that are being provided by the IHW that you would use. out of date data when up to date data was present.
It is not unusual really. I mean for a large report such as Australia's Health, which really is um collection of a wide range of topics as you can imagine from across a broad landscape of health topics. It is our practice to use most recent available data. And it has to be taken into account as well that in producing such a large report there is a certain process that we go through go through the process of design, process of as I said, consulting, preparing for the releases, setting those release dates and then finally culminating in in the release. So there's a particular process that we follow and in that particular instance that was the most recent data point that was available at the time the report was developed.
So you're basically saying that the bureaucracy has prevented you from being able to use the most recent data because of the processes that are required.
It's not bureaucracy but we do have certain timeline obligations in relation to two of our reports one is Australia's health the other one is Australia's welfare we do have certain deadlines which you might want to so Mr. Juckes might want to address about that.
Retrox executive director um that's right there are legislative requirements on the date in which it's tabled and as Zaran said
I mean it's it's it's pretty significant data set in terms of the implications on the health of the nation I mean we're talking about a week um anyway um was the AI AIHW issued any directive from the department or the minister's office regarding the publication of the latest tobacco and vaping figures?
No and uh I'm happy to hand over to Mr Beasley to provide additional detail if required.
Can I could I just make a comment Senator The comment that was made about editorial independence of NHW is something the department takes very seriously I think there are times where we will have an engagement. If AOIHW asked us what are topics of most interest to the government we would have a conversation but that's that's a very firm line from our perspective that they have you know editorial independence and that's critical not just for their credibility in the broader community but also for example with states and territories who are very critical stakeholders there. So I just want to put that on the record in this case.
Yeah thank you um just a couple of um other questions how long's Nicola Roxon been the chair of um AIHW sorry how long has your current chair been chair of the organisation?