27 / 140
Business View Australia - August 2015 27
health with those involved in policy
and program development and
implementation.
Talking about the PHAA and its
role, deputy chief executive officer
Melanie Walker says, “The Public
Health Association of Australia is a
membership organisation. We have
around 2000 members nationwide.
In the seven years that I have been
here the number of members has
gone from 1200 to 2000 now.
“These
are
individual
and
organisational members and it’s a
very broad group. It includes everyone
from doctors and nurses, aboriginal
health workers, academic and
researchers working in public health
in universities, all the way through to
consumers and people who have an
interest in public health.
“We are a very broad based
organisation. We have 17 special
interest groups covering a wide range
of areas in public health. We also have
branches in every state and territory
of Australia.
“We have always focussed strongly
on ensuring that adequate resources
are made available for the public
health sector, and worked towards
obtaining greater funding for public
health across the spectrum.
“At the moment we are concentrating
on the federal budget and some
of the budget cuts to health,
particularly some of the cuts to the
non-government sector which have
not really been well-reported or well-
understood. The organisation’s role is
around capacity building and around
HEALTHCARE