Now lawHealth & Care Introduced in the House of Representatives, 03 Sep 2025

Australia now has its own Centre for Disease Control

This law sets up a new national agency. It gives health advice, tracks disease and gathers health facts from across the country. It can make people hand over facts, and it must publish most of its advice.

Official name: Australian Centre for Disease Control Bill 2025

Who it affects

• Everyone in Australia: One national agency now gives health advice and tracks disease outbreaks.
• Businesses and private groups that hold health data: They can be ordered to give facts to the disease centre. A court can fine them 60 penalty units if they refuse. A penalty unit is a set dollar amount used to work out fines.
• State and territory health departments: They can sign deals with the disease centre and share data with it.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: At least one member of the centre's advice group must be a First Nations person who knows health well. First Nations people are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
• People who handle the centre's data: Leaking private facts can mean up to 2 years in jail.

A CDC promised since 1987

Experts have asked for a national centre to control disease for nearly 40 years. In 1987 the Australasian Epidemiological Association, a group of disease experts, said disease control in Australia was split up and poorly run. The Australian Medical Association, which speaks for doctors, called for one in 2017.

COVID-19 brought the idea back. The Labor Party, which now runs the government, promised a disease centre before the 2022 election. A short-term version started inside the Health Department on 1 January 2024.

In Australia, keeping people healthy is a shared job. The states run hospitals and handle local outbreaks. The national government links up the states and handles health at the border.

This law creates a national agency. It brings health advice and data together in one place. We will call it the disease centre.

Setting up the centre

The law sets up the Australian Centre for Disease Control as its own government agency. It is run by a Director-General, picked by the Health Minister.

The Minister can only pick someone with real skill or work history in public health. Public health means keeping whole communities well. The boss serves for up to 5 years, and the term can be renewed.

The boss has a few main jobs. They give health advice to ministers, government bodies and states. They gather and study health facts. They work with health groups around the world.

They can advise groups such as doctors' groups and patient groups. They can also advise health services run by Aboriginal communities. They can run campaigns to teach the public too.

Public health is given a wide meaning here. It includes stopping illness before it starts, health risks in our surroundings, and the health effects of climate change.

When giving advice, the boss must keep some goals in mind. Advice should be based on facts and earn public trust. The work should be open. It should look at how health risks hit different communities. Courts cannot force the boss to meet these goals.

The staff are public servants, people who work for the government. The boss can also hire outside experts.

Health advice made public

During COVID-19, people complained that health choices were made in secret. A review of the COVID-19 response raised worries about this. This law tries to fix that.

Sometimes the boss gives final written advice to a minister, an agency or a state. If it says what should be done, it must go on the centre's website within 30 days. The reasons and the study behind it must go up too.

In very unusual cases the 30 days can be stretched, with reasons given.

Some advice does not have to be shared. This includes facts that freedom of information law would keep secret. That is the law that lets the public ask for government papers. It also covers facts that could unfairly harm a person or group. Where it can, the centre must publish a version with those parts blacked out. Its yearly report must say why advice was held back.

Say the centre tells the Health Minister to pay for a new vaccine program. The public would be able to read that advice and the reasons for it.

The centre must also keep a public list of deals where outside groups give it facts or advice. It must name each side.

The advisory council

The law sets up an Advisory Council to give advice to the boss. It advises on health and on what the centre should focus on. It cannot give orders.

The boss leads it. The Chief Medical Officer, the government's top doctor, is also a member. The Minister picks 6 to 10 more part-time members for up to 3 years each.

Members must have strong skills in areas such as public health, caring for patients, money, human rights, data, emergencies or talking to the public.

At least one must be an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person who knows First Nations health well. Members must say if they could gain from a decision.

Collecting health information

The boss can ask any person, business or government body to share facts. They can say no. If they say yes, other laws such as privacy laws do not stop them. A few named secrecy laws still apply.

The boss can also order a person or business to hand over facts. Government bodies and their staff cannot be ordered.

An order needs at least 14 days' warning. The boss must believe the facts are truly needed. They must talk to the Advisory Council first.

If someone ignores an order, a court can fine them 60 penalty units. A penalty unit is a set dollar amount used to work out fines.

People can challenge an order at the Administrative Review Tribunal. This body checks government decisions, like a court but less formal. Every order must be listed on the centre's website.

The centre can have data sent to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which counts things about the country. It can also send data to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, which gathers health facts. These agencies handle and link large sets of data.

Sharing data in emergencies

Sometimes there may be a severe threat to health that is urgent or that no one saw coming. Then the boss can make an order that lets groups share data.

The order says which facts can be shared. It says who shares them, who gets them, and why. The reason must link straight to fighting the threat.

The order lasts up to 12 months. Parliament cannot vote to cancel it. The government says this lets groups share data fast. They do not need to worry the rules will be undone later.

The law also lists many other times the centre can share facts. These include stopping a serious threat to safety, or when a person says yes. They also include sharing with courts, and with approved state health bodies.

Keeping information safe

Protected facts include personal details and private business details. A worker at the centre might use or leak them without permission. They could get up to 2 years in jail, a fine of 120 penalty units, or both.

Staff of outside health bodies who misuse these facts face similar punishments. For bodies outside the national government the most is 1 year in jail or 60 penalty units.

People who act honestly in their job are let off. The Privacy Act, the main law on personal details, still applies.

Reviews and smaller rules

An independent review of the law must happen after its first 5 years, then every 5 years. The people doing the review cannot work for the centre. Their report must be shared with Parliament.

The boss can hand many tasks to senior staff. People who share facts the right way under this law cannot be sued for it. They also do not break doctors' rules by doing so.

The Minister can make extra rules under the law.

Start date

The bill was brought into the House of Representatives on 3 September 2025. It passed there on 27 October 2025.

The Senate, Parliament's second house, passed it on 5 November 2025 with 6 changes from the Australian Greens. The House agreed to those changes on 6 November 2025.

The Governor-General, who stands in for the King, signed it into law on 10 November 2025. It became Act No. 61 of 2025.

The whole law started on 1 January 2026. A partner bill moved some health powers that already existed over to the new centre.

How they voted

Its journey through Parliament

Official sources

• Bill page on aph.gov.au
• Text of the bill
• Explanatory memorandum
• Bills Digest

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