Public health and wellbeing
The Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 identifies that local governments in Victoria have a role and responsibility to ‘protect, improve and promote public health and wellbeing’.
From 2025, Kingston’s Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan (MPHWP) is integrated in the Council & Wellbeing Plan 2025-29. The integration of the MPHWP into the Council Plan reinforces the importance of health and wellbeing in everything that we do as a Council.
Health and wellbeing priorities
The Council & Wellbeing Plan 2025-29 identifies seven health and wellbeing priorities for supporting positive change in our community:
Active and healthy living
Designing, building and maintaining environments and promoting physical health and wellbeing by encouraging our community to move more and sit less. It includes opportunities to increase participation in physical activity and encourage active recreation, play, walking and cycling, alongside broader disease prevention and health promotion.
Healthy eating
Improving access to nutritious, safe and culturally appropriate food for everyone, and promoting a sustainable food future that benefits oral health, mental wellbeing and connection through food.
Mental wellbeing
Supporting our community to feel connected, safe and respected for who they are. Diversity is celebrated and everyone has access to the basic needs of life, alongside opportunities for participation in community activities, lifelong learning and volunteering.
Smoking, alcohol & gambling harm
Reducing exposure to and consumption of harmful products including tobacco, vaping, alcohol and gambling. It considers the links with associated health and social impacts including injury, accidents, amenity and violence in the community.
Free from violence
Supporting our community to feel welcome and included when participating in community life, with a zero tolerance of all forms of violence in the home and our community. It includes promoting gender equality and healthy, respectful relationships.
A safe community
Creating a community where people are connected and feel safe in their homes and neighbourhoods. It includes designing safe public places and infrastructure, and promoting safe behaviour to prevent injury from drowning, transport accidents and falls.
Climate change & health
Focusing on the climate emergency and preventing the harm that climate change can have on health. It includes supporting our community to adapt to and manage threats from a changing climate and prioritising actions which both benefit health and reduce emissions at the same time.
Action plans and reporting
A broad range of strategies and action plans across the organisation work towards delivering the goals and objectives set out in our Council & Wellbeing Plan. An Annual Action Plan is developed each year, identifying key actions we are intending to achieve over the next 12 months under the strategic directions of the Council & Wellbeing Plan.
We regularly report against our Council & Wellbeing Plan through quarterly reporting and Annual Reports. These are endorsed by Council and shared publicly on our website.
Health and wellbeing profile
We prepare a health and wellbeing profile(PDF, 3MB) to inform our Public Health and Wellbeing Plan. This looks at a range of data to understand the health of our community. The main data sources are:
- Kingston Health and Wellbeing Survey - conducted in April 2024 by Metropolis Research
- Census 2021 and population forecasting data
- Victorian Population Health Survey 2023
- Crime data
- Australian Early Development Census
Look at the data
Find out more about the health status and health determinants in our community in the following documents:
Find out more
You can further explore population forecasting, demographic, economic and ward profiles of the Kingston community on Kingston's demographics page.
Contact the Health & Social Policy Team with any questions at community@kingston.vic.gov.au or 1300 653 356.