28 October 2025

Australia’s new proposed Centre for Disease Control is a good first step, but must move as quickly as possible to address the non-communicable and chronic diseases experienced by around half the population as well as infectious diseases like COVID.

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) has long campaigned for the establishment of an Australian CDC – a 2022 federal election promise due to come into operation on 1 January 2026.

The RACP welcomes the release of a Senate committee report supporting the Australian CDC establishment, initially focusing on communicable diseases, pandemic preparedness, environmental health and occupational diseases. 

Dr Tony Gill, President of the RACP’s Faculty of Public Health Medicine, said it was an extremely important step towards better managing the risk of disease.

“An Australian CDC will help us to prevent and manage future pandemics better and if we get this right, fewer Australians will y be affected by noncommunicable diseases as well,” Dr Gill said.

But the RACP has been a clear and consistent voice among those both inside and outside of medicine – including the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Council of Trade Unions and federal MP Dr Monique Ryan – in calling for a much greater focus on chronic and preventable diseases.

“This is about being prepared and resilient in the face of the health challenges of the future – we have a really important opportunity here and we have to get it right,” Dr Gill said.

“The pandemic is a very high-profile example of a health challenge we want never to be repeated, but chronic and preventable diseases like heart disease, obesity and diabetes are on the rise and threaten to overwhelm our health system if we don’t lay serious groundwork on prevention and response.

Although the Federal Government has identified an independent review in 2028 as a chance to consider expanding the Australian CDC’s remit to include chronic and preventable disease, the RACP is concerned that this will likely mean that these key issues for our country won’t get the focus they need for many years. 

“Chronic and preventable diseases are a burden on all Australians – not only on a personal level, physically and emotionally, but in terms of spending on public healthcare, unemployment and social assistance, and lost economic productivity.”

The COVID-19 Response Inquiry found that whilst Australia’s response to the pandemic was one of the most successful when compared to other countries, Australia was not adequately prepared for a pandemic.

“An Australian CDC would fill gaps that had long existed but which the COVID pandemic laid bare.

“We need better public health workforce planning and training to ensure an appropriate public health workforce, which includes public health physicians, is available to the CDC and state and territory health departments,” Dr Gill said.