Learning from past commissions

History doesn’t repeat itself; at best it sometimes rhymes — learning from the past to secure future success

Key propositions

Correspondence: steve@med.usyd.edu.au

Acknowledgements:

We are grateful to Braedon Donald for her editorial help in preparing this article.

Competing interests:

None identified.

1. Oldenburg BF, Harper TA. Investing in the future: prevention a priority at last. Med J Aust 2008; 189: 267-268. <MJA full text>
2. Southby RF. Health care reform: looking back to go ahead. Med J Aust 2008; 189: 33-34. <MJA full text>
3. Sax S. A strife of interests. Politics and policies in Australian health services. Sydney: George Allen and Unwin, 1984.
4. Lewis MJ. The people’s health. Vol. 2. Public health in Australia, 1950 to the present. Westport, Conn and London: Praeger Press, 2003.
5. Leeder SR. The contribution of epidemiology to the definition of health goals and targets for Australia. Int J Epidemiol 1995; 24 Suppl 1: S109-S112.
6. Department of Health, Housing and Community Services. Towards health for all and health promotion: the evaluation of the National Better Health Program. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1993.
7. Chapman S. Unravelling gossamer with boxing gloves: problems in explaining the decline in smoking. BMJ 1993; 307: 429-432.
8. Dwyer JM. Fixing the problems that beset the Australian hospital system. Med J Aust 2008; 189: 220-221. <MJA full text>

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.