HIA in Australia & New Zealand

Introduction
HIA in New South Wales
HIA in New Zealand
HIA in Queensland
HIA in South Australia
HIA in Tasmania
HIA In the Australian Capital Territory
HIA In the Northern Territory
HIA In Victoria
HIA in Western Australia
Equity Focused HIA
Posters
Notes

Introduction

By Ben Harris-Roxas, CHETRE

Australia and New Zealand have been leaders in the development of HIA. One of the world’s first guidelines on HIA was developed by Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council in 1994. This was followed up by the publication of the New Zealand Ministry of Health HIA Guidelines in 1995, the enHealth HIA Guidelines in 2001, HIA: A Policy Tool for New Zealand in 2003, the Equity Focused HIA Framework in 2004 and HIA: A Practical Guide in 2007.

Each Australian State and Territory as well as the New Zealand and Australian national governments have played a role in the development of health impact assessment (HIA) in Australia and New Zealand over the past 15 years. Though the process of development has been broadly consistent across Australia and New Zealand, the application of HIA is heavily dependent on the disciplinary, legislative, regulatory and decision-making contexts within which it is being used.

HIAs conducted in Australia and New Zealand to date have focused on three principal issues:

To protect human health through looking at the environmental causes of ill-health and injuries, and at exposure to toxins;
To act on the broader determinants of health. These include factors such as unemployment, stress, transport and access to food that have a powerful effect on population health; and
To minimise health inequities that may arise from government policies and programs.

The extent to which these individual concerns guide HIA practice varies between jurisdictions as HIA is used at project, program, plan and policy levels.

More Information

Mahoney M. Health Impact Assessment in Australia, NSW Public Health Bulletin, 16(7-8): 113-114. Access PDF
Langford B. Health Impact Assessment in New Zealand, NSW Public Health Bulletin, 16(7-8):115. Access PDF
Wright J. HIA in Australia in Kemm J, Parry J and Pakmer S. Health Impact Assessment: Concepts, theory, techniques and applications, Oxford University Press: Oxford, 223-234, 2004.
NPHP. Health Impact Assessment: Legislative and administrative frameworks, National Public Health Partnership: Canberra, 2005. Access PDF

The information on this page is based on the HIA in Australia 2008 poster and articles in Issue 20 of the HIA eNews.

HIA in New South Wales

By Stephen Green, Ben Harris-Roxas, Patrick Harris & Marilyn Wise, CHETRE, and Elizabeth Develin, NSW Health

New South Wales has been a leader in the development of HIA in Australia. The NSW HIA Project began in 2003 to build the capacity of NSW Health to undertake HIA. The 2003 NSW Health and Equity Statement recommended NSW Health develop processes for undertaking rapid appraisals and comprehensive HIAs as a strategy to ensure that proposed government initiatives would improve population health and minimise health inequalities.

More than 20 HIAs have been conducted using the project’s "learning by doing" approach (more information on these is available in the HIA reports section). More than 200 professionals from health and other sectors have been trained to conduct HIAs.

Drawing on this experience Health Impact Assessment: A Practical Guide was published in 2007. The guide has been downloaded more than 2,000 times and more than 800 hard copies of the guide have been distributed.

Organisations that have used HIA in NSW describe it as helping them to:

Assess and address health protection andhealth promotion issues, and potential health inequities
Improve planning and decision-making
Engage with external stakeholders
Develop interorganisational and interdisciplinary relationships
Incorporate actions to improve health and reduce health inequalities into the goals and objectives of other sectors
Improve policies and programs which result in positive population health impacts and contribute to improved population health equity.

Links

NSW HIA Project

Contacts

Contact Information

More Information

Harris-Roxas B, Simpson S. The New South Wales Health Impact Assessment Project, NSW Public Health Bulletin, 16(7-8): 120-123, 2005. Access PDF
Harris P, Harris-Roxas B, Kemp L. Health Impact Assessment in Urban Settings, NSW Public Health Bulletin, 18(9-10): 149-150, 2007. Access PDF
Thckway S, Milat A, Develin E. Influencing Urban Environments for Health: NSW Health response, NSW Public Health Bulletin, 18(9-10): 150-151, 2007. Access PDF
Hughes J, Kemp L. Building Health Impact Assessment Capacity as a Lever for
Healthy Public Policy in Urban Planning, NSW Public Health Bulletin, 18(9-10): 192-194, 2007. Access PDF
Corbett S. The Art of the Possible: Experience and practice in health impact assessment in New South Wales, NSW Public Health Bulletin, 16(7-8): 120-123, 2005. Access PDF
Harris-Roxas B. Learning by Doing: The value of case studies of health impact assessment, NSW Public Health Bulletin, 18(9-10): 161-163, 2007. Access PDF
Harris P, Harris-Roxas B, Harris E, Kemp L. An Overview of the Regulatory Planning System in New South Wales: Identifying points of intervention for health impact assessment, NSW Public Health Bulletin, 18(9-10): 188-191, 2007. Access PDF
Harris P, Harris-Roxas B, Harris E, Kemp L. Health Imact Assessment and Urbanisation: Lessons from the NSW Health Impact Assessment Project, NSW Public Health Bulletin, 18(9-10): 198-201, 2007. Access PDF

HIA in New Zealand

By Paula Hawley-Evans and Matt Soeberg, New Zealand Ministry of Health

New Zealand continues to be one of the leading countries for HIA development. HIA was established in New Zealand in the 1990s through the 'assessment of environmental effects' (similar to environmental impact assessment) under the Resource Management Act 1991. Guidelines for public health agencies and local authorities were released in 1995 to ensure that health was an important part of the assessment of environmental effects.

In 2004 and 2005, the benefits of applying policy-level HIA were recognised and guidelines were released by the Public Health Advisory Committee. The release of these guidelines quickly followed with a number of case studies at local and regional level. These case studies showed that consideration of the positive and negative health impacts of policies, programmes or plans added value to the decision-making process.

In 2006, the New Zealand Cabinet recommended that the Ministry of Health establish a HIA Support Unit (HIASU) to embed HIA in central government decision-making. The main aim of the HIASU is to embed health impact assessment into public policy development processes to support better and more informed decision-making.

The HIASU works at both a central government and local and regional level.

The number of HIAs continued to signficantly increase creating a tipping point. Seven policy-level HIAs have been undertaken between March 2004 and July 2007. From August 2007 until June 2008, eight HIAs have been completed or are in progress as well as an impact evaluation of an existing HIA undertaken.

The HIASU has established a 'Learning by Doing' fund to support district health boards to undertake HIA work. In 2007/08, the HIASU funded five HIA activities through the fund and fourteen proposals were received for the 2008/09 round.

One of the new developments for HIA in New Zealand has been the release of the Whānau Ora Health Impact Assessment tool by the Ministry of Health in 2007. It takes the same approach as the Public Health Advisory Committee’s health impact assessment guide in 2004/05 but is more explicit about assessing the health impacts of non-health policies on the health of Māori. Over 500 people have recently been trained on Whānau Ora HIA with ten half day sessions and four two day sessions recently rolled out across the country.

Introductory and advanced HIA training is offered as part of the summer school courses at the Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences as well as through responses to requests for HIA training.

At a central government level, the HIASU will be working on three case studies over 2008/09. The first case study is using an HIA approach to systematically assess the potential health impacts of transport through planning and decision-making processes. One of the big pieces of work that will inform this will be a research project funded by the New Zealand Transport Agency on then 'when, how and why' of integrating HIA into land transport planning. Quigley and Watts Ltd and Martin Ward with support from the HIASU. The other two case studies look at the health impacts relating to the planning of major sporting events and about major urban development programmes.

The work of the HIASU will be evaluated at the end of 2009.

Links

New Zealand HIA Support Unit

More Information

PHAC. An Idea Whose Time Has Come: New opportunities for Health Impact Assessment in New Zealand public policy and planning, New Zealand Public Health Advisory Committee: Wellington, 2007. Access PDF
Signal L, Langford B, Quigley R, Ward M. Strengthening Health, Wellbeing and Equity: Embedding policy-level HIA in New Zealand, Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, 29: 17-31, 2006. Access PDF
Morgan R. Institutionalising Health Impact Assessment: The New Zealand experience, Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 26(1): 2-16, 2008. doi:10.3152/146155108X300547

HIA in Queensland

Uma Rajappa and Dylan Walker, Queensland Health

Queensland Health is progressively turning to HIA to ensure the protection and promotion of public health and well-being. Examples of projects and plans that have been identified as benefiting from the application of HIA to date are:

Two major dams in South East Queensland;
A proposed nickel refinery;
The impact of residential encroachment on existing agricultural and industrial uses;
The “Clean and Healthy Air for Gladstone” project.

Partnerships are being forged between government, industry and stakeholders in other sectors.

Queensland Health has worked with Queensland Transport, Education Queensland and Environmental Protection Agency staff to increase their awareness and knowledge of HIA, forging strong relationships on these key determinants of health.
Systematic consideration of the health impacts of state and local policies and major developments is a goal supported through Queensland Health’s strategic documents, including the Population Health Plan 2007-2012.

HIA in South Australia

By Frank Callaghan ,Carmel Williams andDanny Broderick, South Australian Department of Health

South Australia has continued to explore how best to incorporate health impact assessment into governmental decision making. The health portfolio has used three distinct approaches to date:

Health impact assessment on major planning developments, policies and strategies using eHealth’s Health Impact Assessment Guidelines 2001;
Equity focused health impact assessment;
Health in All Policies, an emerging approach supporting all government agencies to consider the health impacts of their policies and plans under South Australia’s Strategic Plan (SASP).

Examples of HIAs completed:

Policy development and action plans on climate change and travel demand management;
Yorke Peninsula Regional Land Use Framework;
A rapid equity filter on aspects of the Australian Better Health Initiative;
Preliminary examination of the population health impacts of SASP targets including water sustainability and labour participation.

These three approaches are now converging with joint activity between SA Health and the SA Department of the Premier and Cabinet that involves all government agencies considering the population health implications (including equity) of their policy decisions.

Health in All Policies is an approach designed to not just realise the potential health impacts of proposals, but also to identify and strengthen the contribution of better health to other sectors’ goals and priorities. It is also designed to address all determinants of health and Aboriginal health using the Aboriginal Health Impact Statement.

More Information

Callaghan F, Lease C. Health Impact Assessment in South Australia, South Australian Public Health Bulletin, 4(3): 11-13, 2007. Access PDF

HIA in Tasmania

Martin Bicevskis and Sue Frendin, Department of Health and Human Services Tasmania

Tasmania was a leader in legislating for HIA but lack of sufficient workforce capacity has reduced its application under the Tasmanian Environmental Management and Pollution Control Act.

HIA has proven to be a positive vehicle for establishing good relations between government agencies. Procedures have recently been revised within the Department of Tourism Arts and Environment to enable more efficient scoping of environmental impact assessments. The aim is earlier communication between a development proponent and relevant government agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services, thereby improving the quality and efficiency of HIAs.

HIA processes have revealed the inherent limitations in a government health agency implementing HIA within the regulatory processes of another non-health agency, including communication, timeframes, and opportunity for relevant public consultation.

Building workforce capacity and forging partnerships will help to raise both the internal and external profile of HIA in Tasmania.

HIA In the Australian Capital Territory

David Kallir Preece, ACT Health

The use of Health Impact Assessment has been limited in the Australian Capital Territory to date. The ACT does not currently have a legislative requirement stipulating that HIA form part of the assessment process for policy, programme or project developments.

However, under the Public Health Act 1997, the Chief Health Officer is able to conduct an investigation in respect of any matter concerning public health except where the issue would be subject of an environmental impact statement or inquiry under the Planning and Development Act 2007 (Planning and Development Act). The format of the investigation is up to the discretion of the Chief Health Officer.

Also, the Planning and Development Act has a requirement that all development applications that are impact assessable undergo the broadest level of assessment, including an environmental impact statement (EIS). An EIS must be prepared in accordance with any requirement set out in the scoping document for the EIS. Each significant environment impact, (including human health impacts) must be addressed in its own part of the EIS. The draft scoping document and completed EIS are provided to the ACT Health for its comment and approval.

HIA In the Northern Territory

Dagmar Schmitt and Peter Rogers, NT Health

HIA action by the NT Department of Health and Community Services (DHCS) has been through its membership of the NT Interagency Environmental Assessment Forum, where it contributes to Environmental Impact Statements (EIS), Public Environmental Reports (PER), Notice of Intents (NOI), draft guidelines for applicants developing EIS and PERs and Environmental Management Plans (EMP) released for comments by the EPA.

The EHIAs provided by the Environmental Health Program have been guided by the enHealth HIA guidelines and NT-specific Standard Operating Procedures (SOPS). The policy unit has also developed information bulletins guiding Environmental Health Officers that provide environmental health comments to development applications for the increasing number of developments occurring in the rural areas of the Northern Territory.

Recent examples of environmental health input into the EHIA process include but are not limited to:

Draft guidelines for the preparation of a strategic environmental assessment for the development of gas based industry at Middle Arm Darwin;
Location and construction new solid waste disposal sites;
Establishment and extensions of mines;
Redevelopment of the Darwin Harbour Water Front.

The DHCS Environmental Health Program is hopeful that a review of the administration of the NT Environmental Assessment Act will provide opportunities to advocate for the inclusion of HIA in the NT legislative framework.

HIA In Victoria

Jessica McCormick, Monash University, and Necia Burford, Department of Human Services Victoria

Since 2002, Victoria has considered the strategic use of HIA as a tool for supporting policy and planning and decision making by government at State and Municipal levels.

A phased approach to the development of HIA has seen modest resources invested by the Department of Human Services (DHS) in work to explore firstly, the feasibility and positioning of HIA and secondly, build capacity for HIA, particularly in eight regions across the state. Training of public health staff, as a core component of this phased approach, has focused on building an understanding of the technical components of HIA as well as the rationale and principles underpinning it.

Commissioned by DHS, the Department of Health Science at Monash University led a third phase of HIA development in 2007 which sought to provide expert advice and technical support to Regional public Health Teams and their affiliated local governments. The nature of this support was via a ‘learn by doing’ approach which resulted in the completion of a HIA on a strategic footpath development and an equity-focused HIA being completed on a family violence prevention strategy.

The positioning of HIA in local government was explored in 2005. The complexities of the contextual and operational conditions needed for HIA's inclusion within the diverse tiers of government within Victoria was the main focus of this work. Exploration of the role of HIA in Neighbourhood Renewal is ongoing and to date has provided insights into the main considerations necessary when applying HIA to neighbourhood renewal projects.

HIA in Western Australia

Dianne Katscherian, WA Health

The development of HIA in WA is progressing steadily: addressed through approvals processes and consideration of health impacts within government policy.

The resources sector is stimulating rapid growth across WA and the need for greater collaboration amongst sectors to minimize adverse impacts and delays to development has been highlighted. Strategies that have been established include:

Implementation of an integrated Project Approvals System for resource projects under the State Development Portfolio;
Improved communication with the Environmental Protection Authority;
Whole of Government approaches to the development of Strategy/Structure Plans.

A new Public Health Act that includes mandatory HIA is in development but must meet the government’s requirement that the HIA must be integrated into existing processes.

A discussion paper was released during 2007 outlining options on the means to progress HIA. Feedback is being used to develop the HIA framework for WA.

More Information

WA Health . Health Impact Assessment Discussion Paper , Western Australian Department of Health: Perth, 2007. Access PDF

Equity Focused HIA

The University of Newcastle, Deakin University and the Centre for Health Equity Training Research and Evaluation at UNSW (CHETRE) were funded under the Australian Government's Public Health Education Research Program to undertake a two year project entitled 'Equity-focused Health Impact Assessment: Working collaboratively to develop a strategic framework'. The project:

developed an Equity-focused Health Impact Assessment (EFHIA) framework;
tested the framework in five case studies located across Australia and New Zealand;
disseminated the results, and
promoted the implementation of EFHIA in the Australian health sector workforce.

The project culminated in an international workforce capacity building workshop held in Sydney on the 25th and 26th August 2004.