Policy Development Handbook

In 2011, South Australia became the first state in Australia to include non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention provisions in its Public Health Act. This means South Australia’s Minister for Health and Wellbeing is empowered to declare an NCD and issue a code of practice to prevent or reduce impact. However, these provisions have not yet been activated.

The NCD-prevention provisions are the first attempt to transform a core piece of public health law in response to Australia’s chronic disease epidemic. This is significant in stemming chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, stroke, cardiovascular disease and some cancers.

This handbook has been designed to support the public health law project throughout the process of policy development and includes:

• The South Australia context, including sociodemographic and socioeconomic analyses and South Australian population health risk factors
• Summary of existing regulatory interventions in South Australia
• Legal brief of the key features of the South Australian Public Health Act, and key opportunities for developing regulatory interventions to support Wellbeing SA’s NCD-prevention agenda.