Each AMA President has given a keynote address to the NPC to outline their vision of Australia’s health system. This would be Professor Stephen Robson’s first address as Federal AMA President, and would be immediately after Labor’s first full budget.
This will be Professor Steve Robson’s first address as Federal AMA President and follows Labor’s first full budget.
The AMA President’s address will explore the evidence for the economic benefit of investing in health and will outline opportunities to improve the productivity of our health system and the economy through evidence-backed innovative policy, while also making a difference in the lives of Australians.
We know through our experience in COVID-19 compared to other countries, that an early, targeted health spend can produce a healthier, more productive workforce and economy in the long term.
Smart options also exist for saving money in our hospitals through fixing “bed block”, and reforming how we fund general practice to evolve to a medical home model. In public health we have already seen that we can use regulation to crack down on vapes and save ourselves an expensive future health crisis at the same time. There are more opportunities to prevent chronic disease, save Australian taxpayer dollars and generate revenue including by introducing a sugar tax. In private health there are also opportunities to improve the productivity and the performance of the private sector through innovative policy, designed with the right protections for Australian patients.
Innovation across the health sector can keep people healthier, more productive, and out of less efficient, higher cost, acute healthcare. The AMA believes we have the ideas, the evidence and the policies that can achieve this outcome, we need only the political will.
Steve grew up in regional towns in Queensland and was the first member of his family to attend university, graduating from the University of Queensland in 1987.
He did his internship in Rockhampton in Central Queensland where he had a major mental health crisis that he was lucky to survive. This gave him a continuing passion for looking after the mental health of doctors.
Steve joined the Royal Australian Navy and served as a Medical Officer in HMAS SYDNEY in the First Gulf War.
He is a Fellow of the Australian, British, and American Colleges of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and was awarded the highest honour of the American College for his work to improve birth safety in the Pacific. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Steve has master’s degrees in public health and genetics and has two PhDs and is currently completing a master’s degree in health economics.
He maintains committee roles with the NHMRC, the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator, and the Australian Medical Council and was an inaugural member of the National Advisory Council for Endometriosis. He has also been a member of Ministerial advisory committees.
Steve co-founded the charity Send Hope, with former Press Gallery journalist Emma Macdonald. The charity has raised more than a million dollars for maternal health projects Papua New Guinea and beyond.
