VicHealth – the world’s first health promotion foundation—is on the chopping blocks, the latest independent, non-commercial health organisation to be axed in the past decade.

The Victorian government confirmed the decision last week after a review in June recommended the agency “should be abolished as a standalone entity and its functions absorbed” into the department of health (DH).

Noting that VicHealth was set up to promote health and prevent chronic disease through research, policy and community-based health initiatives, the review stated: “This is important work but does not need to be conducted independently of a department; it can be absorbed into DH work without compromising service quality.”

But can it?

The Public Health Association of Australia called the impending closure “backward” and said its independence had been crucial to continuing prevention efforts following the fledgling department in a post-COVID world.

“The independence of the agency that has been vital in preventing chronic disease, and was structurally separated from the constant pressures of a Department of Health, that has been struggling and in atrophy since the COVID pandemic, almost guarantees that prevention efforts will all but disappear,” PHAA CEO Adjunct Professor Terry Slevin said.

“As belts tighten in government, programs that focus on the essential work of preventing disease become the casualty. Caring for people who are ill will always be an important and immediate priority. It is always urgent. But reducing the commitment to preventing diseases of the future consigns more Victorians to need those urgent, and often costly, health treatment services,” Professor Slevin said.

The Council of Academic Public Health Institutions Australasia (CAPHIA) also called for a reversal of the decision, stating that removing the orgnanisation’s independence would reduce the state’s ability to respond “to the growing polycrisis facing public health.”

“VicHealth’s independence allows it to express positions on politically sensitive issues without fear or favour such as alcohol, tobacco, gambling, unhealthy food marketing and priority populations. This essential advocacy role will be severely constrained within a government department,” CAPHIA stated.

The funding cuts appear to be part of a broader pattern, eroding independent, non-commercial health information sources, says CAPHIA executive director Holly Donaldson.

“VicHealth’s demotion isn’t an isolated decision – it’s part of a wider pattern,” Ms Donaldson says.

“We’re seeing Schools of Public Health merged or downsized, prevention budgets cut, independent health agencies weakened and commercial influence growing in policy spaces. The same trend is emerging overseas, where public health institutions are being absorbed or defunded just as global health threats intensify.”

“Independence is not symbolic – it’s what allows agencies to act on tobacco, alcohol, food marketing and climate risks without interference,” CAPHIA executive director Holly Donaldson says.

Only a few years ago the federal government defunded NPS MedicineWise which had been formed in 1998 to improve quality use of medicines. NPS closed its doors in December 2022. That decision, too, followed a review.

Another independent source that met the same fate was the Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health dataset– better known as BEACH.

“For many years BEACH was a source of independent GP clinical data that both government and industry could agree on during their negotiations. BEACH delivered over 800 bespoke reports to inform and shape policy decisions by governments and support key business decisions by industry.”

It was defunded in 2016.

When these resources disappear into the machinery of government, prevention becomes just another competing priority — and commercial interests lose their most credible critics.

“When independent agencies like VicHealth lose their autonomy, prevention suffers. This move is short sighed and dangerous,” Ms Donaldson sums up.