Public health & safety

Councils have a wide range of responsibilities to ensure the public health and wellbeing of their communities. They also have specific roles in enforcing food safety, tobacco controls and smoking regulations.

When regulatory changes have implications for council resources and activities, we advocate on councils' behalf to other levels of government.

Current priorities

We advocate on behalf of local government to improve community health through public health regulations and plans. We work closely with the Victorian Government, councils and other stakeholders about the frameworks, case studies and guides which assist councils with their own health policies. We help councils fulfil their health regulation obligations through advocacy, project coordination and developing regulatory activities.

The public health services and areas we work closely with include:

• Community safety
• Food safety regulation
• Gambling prevention
• Municipal Public Health Planning
• Tobacco education and enforcement
• Drugs and alcohol prevention

Current projects and activities

• Councils’ response to COVID-19
• Community safety
• Food safety
• Gambling
• Municipal public health planning
• Smoking & tobacco
• Drugs & alcohol
• Skin cancer prevention

Submissions and briefs

We develop and form a collective local government sector view on a range of public health topics. These include:

• Consultation on Expansion of Pharmacist-administered Vaccination Program - Nov 2019 (Word - 54.8KB)
• Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System - Jul 2019 (PDF - 401KB)
• Gaming Machine Minimisation Measures Consultation Paper - Jan 2017 (PDF - 1.02MB)
• Review of Liquor Control Reform Act - Dec 2016 (Word - 191KB)
• MAV Submission to the Department of Health - Proposed outdoor smoking bans - 2013 (Word - 300KB)

To access all our public health-related submissions, visit the MAV submissions page.

Resources

Public Health and Wellbeing Act

To help councils implement the Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008, we worked with the Department of Health and Human Services to commission the development of a guide and toolkit when the Act was changed in 2008:

• Public Health and Wellbeing Act Guide (Word - 3.25MB) - assists environmental health officers in their day-to-day investigation and enforcement activities
• Public Health and Wellbeing Toolkit (Word - 782KB) - helps governance officers and managers to delegate council powers, appoint and authorise environmental health officers and prepare and approve new registration forms.

Engage with us

Our monthly Human Services Bulletins feature health and safety updates.

For more information about our public health policy work, please email: publichealth@mav.asn.au