Critical questions we should ask in a changing Australian preventative health landscape: competing interests, intervention limits and permissible health identities

Abstract

The national health reform reviews conducted recently in Australia (?Henry Review?, National Preventative Health Taskforce, National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission) have seen significant energy invested in articulating a new vision for health promotion and disease prevention in this country. This is an opportune time to think critically about the underpinning frameworks that we want to guide our decisions and actions in public health policy, practice and research. The purpose of this piece is to raise questions for debate in relation to the issues of competing professional interests and perspectives, intervention limits, permissible health identities; and what these might mean for the justification of health promotion and prevention interventions in a changing funding and policy environment.