Reducing Health Inequities in Australia: The Role of Place-Based Action and Spatial Data Infrastructure

Australia holds one of the world's highest life expectancies, yet stark geographic inequities persist. In Queensland, the gap in median age of death between communities only 85 km apart reaches 26 years for men and 22 years for women. While national policies increasingly endorse "health-in-all-policies" and place-based approaches, their impact depends on the ability to identify, target and monitor inequities at fine geographic scales. Spatially referenced data and analytic techniques provide a critical foundation for this work, enabling baseline assessments, tailored interventions, and rigorous evaluation. To fully realise this potential, commonwealth and federal governments must commit to sharing spatially open data, invest in capacity-building for its use, and foster transdisciplinary collaboration. Without these supports, the promise of place-based health perspectives to tackle health inequities will remain unrealised.