The Government's established a national public health system to fight disease and promote healthy living

The Public Health Agency will lead and co-ordinate population and public health policy...while the national Public Health Service will do work on the ground.

An extra $61 million will be invested to establish the agency and service which bring together the existing 12 public health units.

Health Minister Andrew Little says having a coordinated, national system instead of the old fragmented one will help people's health.

He says the public health system lacked coordination and collaboration in the past - making it difficult to focus on preventing illness and disease across the country.