West Australians will soon be deciding the makeup of their next state parliament. Photo: WA State Parliament Facebook.
With West Australians going to the polls on Saturday 8 March, the Heart Foundation wants to hear more from all parties about specific action plans over heart disease.
With just two weeks to go before polling day, the Heart Foundation is urging all candidates and parties to endorse three key priorities it says will save lives and reduce healthcare costs.
The Heart Foundation wants the next WA Government, whoever forms it, to embrace its policy positions by campaigning on them now with a commitment to implement them once in office.
The policy priorities it wants pushed are to: boost preventive heart health, reduce cardiac arrest deaths, and end rheumatic heart disease (RHD).
To boost preventive heart health, the foundation wants an investment commitment of $3 million over four years in public awareness campaigns to increase uptake of Medicare-subsidised heart health checks.
This will help at-risk individuals detect and manage cardiovascular disease early and in turn reduce demand on emergency departments.
To reduce cardiac arrest deaths, it would like $2 million allocated over four years to raise awareness and provide education on lifesaving automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and bystander CPR – increasing confidence and use in emergencies.
And to end RHD, the Heart Foundation wants an investment of $13.8 million over four years in the rollout of remote laundries and community-led initiatives to prevent RHD in First Nations communities.
RHD is highly preventable but overrepresented in First Nations people.
The Heart Foundation’s WA general manager Helena Viola said heart disease accounted for more than 4000 deaths in WA each year – the state’s leading cause of death – costing the healthcare system more than $1.3 billion annually.
“Despite improvements over the last few decades, heart disease still remains a leading cause of death in WA,” Dr Viola said.
“The next government has a critical opportunity to take meaningful action that will not only save lives but also reduce the economic burden that heart disease has on our healthcare system.
“The Heart Foundation urges all political parties to commit to these priorities and put heart health at the centre of their policy agendas.”
Dr Viola said the Heart Foundation’s initiatives aligned with national strategies to reduce preventable deaths, improve early detection, and empower communities with the tools they needed to take charge of their heart health.
Labor Premier Roger Cook holds a significant majority in the WA Parliament, with the Liberals and Nationals facing an uphill battle to win enough seats back from Labor in order to form government.
Mr Cook replaced Mark McGowan in 2023, who had led Labor to victory in the past two WA state elections in landslides.
Labor won 53 Lower House seats at the last election.
Mr McGowan stepped down mid-term, making this Mr Cook’s first state election as party leader.
It is also the first election as leader for the Liberal’s Libby Mettam, who replaced David Honey in January 2023.
Nationals leader Shane Love is also in the mix, as his party holds as many Lower House seats as the Liberals (which is only three seats each), relegating any reference to the Nationals as a junior Coalition partner as a somewhat redundant term.
More than a formal coalition, however, the Liberals and Nationals in WA entered into an alliance in 2021 in preparation for the election.
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