Summary of Philip Johnston's communications with two members of National Preventive Health Taskforce and Peter Morris, Dept of Health & Ageing

Almost two years ago, on 9 April 2008, the Minister for Health & Ageing, Nicola Roxon, announced the establishment of a seven member National Preventive Health Taskforce, to be Chaired by Dr. Rob Moodie, which was chartered to provide evidence-based advice to government and health providers on Preventive Health programs and strategies, and support the development of a National Preventive Health Strategy.

The strategy was to provide a blueprint for tackling the burden of chronic disease caused by obesity, tobacco, and excessive consumption of alcohol.  It was directed at primary prevention and to address all relevant arms of policy and all available points of leverage, in both the health and non-health sectors, in formulating its recommendations.

Inter alia, the taskforce was to:

i)         inform what works and what doesn’t;

ii)        provide advice for policy makers on what strategies work best at a population level, and on the best buys for government investment in Primary Prevention; and

iii)       support the development of inter governmental and public-private partnerships on Preventive Health.

In March 2010 the Medical Journal of Australia published a report by Professor Stephen Colagiuri, Professor of Metabolic Health at the Uni of Sydney, which identified the direct cost of overweight and obesity in Australia was $56.5 billion.  Direct health care and other related costs totalled $21 billion, while government subsidies cost another $35.6 billion a year.

A report titled "The costs of tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug abuse to Australian society in 2004/05" by David J. Collins of Macquarie University and Helen M. Lapsley of University of Queensland estimated the cost in 2004-5 to be $56.1 billion in 2004-05

The Three Chronic Diseases of obesity, tobacco, and excessive consumption of alcohol cost the Australian economy in excess of $120 billion annually bearing in mind that the latter report reviewed data in '04/'05.

Recently a retired infrastructure banker, Philip Johnston, who has participated in rigorous sports such as cycling, ocean swimming, kayaking and hiking all his adult life with like-minded exercise junkies wrote to me after exhausting all avenues within the Australian government to obtain a meeting with Dr Rob Moodie.

In July 2008 Mr Johnston posted three business plans on CD ROMs to members of the Taskforce which were set out in an Information Memorandum format deployed by investment bankers keen to attract debt providers for a Brownfield infrastructure project.  Mr Johnston viewed Australia's 22 million population as Human Brownfield Infrastructure which by the injection of Capex into Interested Adults who wanted to rediscover the skills they learnt during their Youthful Exuberance Growth Phase by commencing one of 8 selected Rigorous Recreational Exercise Activities or 6 selected Moderate Recreational Exercise Activities in a 21½ months Tenure Of Pilot.

Mr Johnston's "Youthful Exuberance Lifestyle Programme ("YELP") sought to modify an existing Preventive Health programme under Lifescripts, entrusted upon GPs, called the Five Basic Stages of Change, by substituting lower cost Recreational Exercise Consultants who possess Eleven Sports Administration Attributes to perform the Final Three Stages which Philip Johnston contended that higher cost GPs were rarely equipped to administer.  Mr Johnston contended that YELP would be exceeding

One of the members of the taskforce, Shaun Larkin, e-mailed Philip, "Input and content such as you have provided is very much appreciated by me in my role as a member of the National Preventive Health Taskforce.   I suggest you forward a copy of the information provided to Peter Morris at the Department of Health and Ageing."

Utilising the skills he had acquired over a 37 career in banking, Mr. Johnston diligently worked voluntarily for two years preparing Two National Preventive Health Research Programmes and sending updates to Peter Morris at the Department of Health and Ageing.

The Chair of the National Preventive Health Taskforce, Dr. Rob Moodie, wrote to him on 2 April 2009 acknowledging receipt of his continued research CD ROMs and concluded "Best wishes for the continued development of the programme". 

Peter Morris, Dept of Health & Ageing, letter to Phil Johnston dated 2 July 2009 included "the Government will consider on merit any recommendations the Taskforce may make concerning support for community programs in physical activity."