Fat, pissed and choking: Why you can't cure the incurable and why prevention is important. A public lecture by Professor Rob Moodie - Australian Preventative Health Taskforce

On behalf of the Drug Foundation and the Alcohol Advisory Council (ALAC) it’s my pleasure to invite you to a lecture by Professor Rob Moodie, a global expert on disease prevention and health promotion.

Professor Moodie heads the Australian Government’s National Preventative Health Taskforce, a body charged by federal health minister Hon Nicola Roxon to provide advice on preventative health programmes especially focussed on obesity, tobacco and the excessive consumption of alcohol. 

Professor Moodie will give his public lecture at Te Papa Tongarewa – The Museum of New Zealand on Friday 5 February, 10.00am-midday.  

The burden of disease caused by obesity, tobacco and alcohol are hot issues on both sides of the Tasman.  Professor Moodie’s lecture is a fantastic and timely opportunity for a New Zealand audience: The Maori Affairs Select Committee is currently conducting an inquiry into tobacco; the Law Commission is due to make its recommendations to government on its liquor review; and there is ongoing debate about the most effective ways to tackle obesity.

About Dr Rob Moodie

Professor Moodie is the inaugural Chair of Global Health at the Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne. He is responsible for leading the development of the Disease Prevention and Health Promotion group within the Institute.

In April 2008 he was appointed by the Federal Minister for Health to chair the National Preventative Health Task Force, and presented the National Preventative Health Strategy in June 2009.

He chairs the Technical Advisory Panel of the Gates Foundation’s funded Indian HIV prevention program Avahan. He also chairs the Melbourne Storm Rugby League Club.

He was Chief Executive Officer of Victoria’s Health Promotion agency, VicHealth, from 1998-2007.

In 2007 he was appointed by the Victorian Minister of Planning to chair the Audit Expert Group to review Melbourne’s major urban plan, Melbourne 2030. He was a member of the Minister of Foreign Affairs’ Aid Advisory Council from 2002-2007. From 1999-2002 he was Editor-in-Chief of the Health Promotion Journal of Australia, and from 2001-2006 he was Vice President of the International Union of Health Promotion and Education.

Since 1979 he has worked for Save the Children Fund, Medicins Sans Frontieres, Congress, the Aboriginal Health Service in Alice Springs, the Burnet Institute and for the World Health Organization. He was the inaugural Director of Country Programs at the joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Professor Moodie has written and spoken extensively on preventative health. He has co-edited and co-written four books, including Hands on Health Promotion, and his most recent book is Recipes for a Great Life with Gabriel Gate. He has written 12 book chapters, and authored 18 major reports. He has written over 50 opinion editorials in the Australian mainstream press and writes a regular column on medical oddities for Cosmos magazine.

Rob is married with two children and was named Victorian Father of the Year in 2005.

The Preventative Health Taskforce

Australia’s Preventative Health Taskforce was established in April 2008 to provide evidence-based advice to governments and health providers on preventative health programmes and strategies. Its main focus is the burden of chronic disease associated with three lifestyle risk factors – obesity, tobacco and the excessive consumption of alcohol. The Taskforce reports directly to the Minister for Health and Ageing.

The Taskforce recently developed the National Preventative Health Strategy, which is based on both local and international experience and evidence, and embraces the ambitious goal of Australia being the healthiest country by 2020. It is directed at primary prevention and comprehensively addresses relevant policy and available points of leverage in both the health and non-health sectors. www.preventativehealth.org.au