Inquiry into Diabetes: Submission to the Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Sport

This submission to the Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Sport’s Inquiry into Diabetes addresses the term of reference on the effectiveness of current Australian Government policies and programs to prevent, diagnose and manage diabetes. Research Australia maintains that the Australian National Diabetes Strategies 2016–2020 and 2021–2030 have been largely ineffective. It notes that the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) data update in December 2020 recorded favourable progress on only nine of 55 indicators and could not report on 20, and that no implementation plan has been published for the current Strategy, with a refresh not expected until 2024. It recommends a new implementation plan as soon as possible, a funded AIHW review to make indicators measurable, and impact measures for specific actions. Examining the Strategy’s proposed national diabetes research agenda, it maintains that no body can coordinate funding across the NHMRC’s Medical Research Endowment Account, the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), Diabetes Australia and JDRF, and that similar unfunded research agendas exist in the obesity, preventive health and mental health strategies; only Cancer Australia has its own research budget. Using the example of an aged care diabetes trial that is never implemented, it proposes that the planned Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC) map and fund the translation of research into practice for diabetes and other chronic diseases, and that the CDC be considered for a role in directing a portion of MRFF funding.