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Business View Australia - January-February 2016 97
& AGED CARE
dertaking research in public health
with those involved in policy and pro-
gram development and implementa-
tion.
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 organisa-
tional members and it’s a very broad
group. It includes everyone from doc-
tors and nurses, aboriginal health
workers, academic and researchers
working in public health in universi-
ties, all the way through to consum-
ers and people who have an interest
in public health.
“We are a very broad based organ-
isation. We have 17 special interest
groups covering a wide range of ar-
eas in public health. We also have
branches in every state and territory
of Australia.
“We have always focussed strongly
on ensuring that adequate resourc-
es 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 concen-
trating 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 representation for the sector
as a whole.”
The Association has promoted 17
special interest groups (SIGs) to en-
able a focussed effort to be made
in selected areas. The formation of