How governments influence public health research: a scoping review.

Governments can become involved in academic research to assist in public health decision-making. However, when governments become involved, the research process can be influenced away from academic research practices, jeopardizing research integrity. This review aimed to improve understanding of this by (i) establishing the extent of literature about government influence on research, (ii) detailing key characteristics of influence, and (iii) identifying gaps meriting future investigation.

Lobbying in the Shadows: A Comparative Analysis of Government Lobbyist Registers.

Unlabelled: Policy Points Our research provides a starting point to benchmark government transparency measures to improve the quality and accessibility of information about lobbying. Policymakers and regulators can use our framework to develop or strengthen their own lobbying registers. Countries like Canada are a good example of how to design an accessible database about lobbying, and Chile, Ireland, and Scotland provide examples of comprehensive contact logs.

Lobbying in the Sunlight: A Scoping Review of Frameworks to Measure the Accessibility of Lobbying Disclosures.

Background: While anyone can lobby governments, most lobbying is driven by commercial interests. Due to limited government disclosures, it is often challenging to get a clear picture of who is lobbying whom or why. To help make lobbying more visible to the public, we set out to develop a framework of key criteria for best practice government lobbying disclosures.

Governance of the wildlife trade and the prevention of emerging zoonoses: a mixed methods network analysis of transnational organisations, silos, and power dynamics.

Introduction: The wildlife trade is an important arena for intervention in the prevention of emerging zoonoses, and leading organisations have advocated for more collaborative, multi-sectoral approaches to governance in this area. The aim of this study is to characterise the structure and function of the network of transnational organisations that interact around the governance of wildlife trade for the prevention of emerging zoonoses, and to assess these network characteristics in terms of how they might support or undermine progress on these issues.

Methods: This study used a mixed methods social network analysis of transnational organisations.

An analysis of the features of successful written submissions to government inquiries.

Objective: Government inquiries present a policy window for advocates to influence policy. Evidence on how to write influential submissions, however, is sparse. We aimed to identify features of successful written submissions to the Parliament of Australia's Inquiry into Food Pricing and Food Security in Remote Indigenous Communities (Inquiry).

Legal and regulatory instruments for NCD prevention: a scoping review and descriptive analysis of evaluations in OECD countries.

Context: Public health law is an important tool in non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention. There are different approaches available for achieving policy objectives, including government, co-, quasi- and self-regulation. However, it is often unclear what legal design features drive successes or failures in particular contexts.

Mapping the Lobbying Footprint of Harmful Industries: 23 Years of Data From OpenSecrets.

Unlabelled: Policy Points Our research reveals the similarities and differences among the lobbying activities of tobacco, alcohol, gambling, and ultraprocessed food industries, which are often a barrier to the implementation of public health policies. Over 23 years, we found that just six organizations dominated lobbying expenses in the tobacco and alcohol sectors, whereas the gambling sector outsourced most of their lobbying to professional firms. Databases like OpenSecrets are a useful resource to monitor the commercial determinants of health.

Effect of message framing on support for a sugar-sweetened beverage tax in Australia: a cross-sectional survey analysis.

Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes are present in many countries with evidence that they are effective in decreasing purchases of SSBs. However, in Australia where SSB consumption per capita is high, and calls for an SSB tax are frequent, there is no SSB tax and policymakers have stated their lack of support for such a tax. We examined whether political party voting preference and sociodemographic factors affect individuals' support for an SSB tax, and whether message framing affects this support.

Lobbying by omission: what is known and unknown about harmful industry lobbyists in Australia.

What is unknown about commercial lobbying is far greater than what is known. These omissions distort our understanding of the extent and nature of business influence on politics. Especially when businesses engage in practices that harm health, it is crucial for public health advocates to understand corporate lobbying to counter its influence.

A framework of NGO inside and outside strategies in the commercial determinants of health: findings from a narrative review.

Background: Public health scholarship has uncovered a wide range of strategies used by industry actors to promote their products and influence government regulation. Less is known about the strategies used by non-government organisations to attempt to influence commercial practices. This narrative review applies a political science typology to identify a suite of 'inside' and 'outside' strategies used by NGOs to attempt to influence the commercial determinants of health.

Spokespeople in public health: Important characteristics from the perspective of Australian public health professionals.

Background: Spokespeople play a significant role in communicating public health information yet there is little research understanding the characteristics of those who provide such messaging.

Methods: One hundred and four health professionals (70% female) recruited through professional association mailing lists in Australia completed a brief online quantitative and qualitative survey.

Results: Participants reported characteristics they believed to be important for spokespeople, those that they believed their organisation considered important, and those they thought engendered public trust.

Additional Marketing Responses to a Tax on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Comment on "Understanding Marketing Responses to a Tax on Sugary Drinks: A Qualitative Interview Study in the United Kingdom, 2019".

Marketing responses to sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes are understudied in the literature. Previous research has been limited to examining price and advertising, in particular promotions responses. Forde et al advocate for a focus on exploring a range of marketing responses to a SSB tax, with an emphasis on the marketing mix (price, promotion, product, and place).

Commercial lobbying and political contributions: an Australian scoping review.

Objective: Many of the most effective and equitable policies to reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases threaten the interests of powerful corporations. A first step for public health advocates seeking to challenge powerful corporate interests is to understand the nature and extent of corporate political practices. This scoping review explored public health research on two political practices in Australia: lobbying and political donations.

Aiding empirical research on the commercial determinants of health: a scoping review of datasets and methods about lobbying.

Background: To support public health researchers and advocates seeking to challenge the influence of powerful commercial actors on health, it is necessary to develop a deeper understanding of corporate political activities. This project explores political science scholarship analysing lobbying to identify new datasets and research methods that can be applied to public health and stimulate further research and advocacy.

Methods: We undertook a systematic scoping review of peer-reviewed and grey literature reports analysing the practice of lobbying.

Food security in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in remote Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis of print news media and press releases.

Objective: This article aims to examine the framing of the issue of food security in very remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in print media and press releases during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Methods: Newspaper articles were identified following a systematic search of the Factiva database, and press releases were identified from manual search of key stakeholder websites from January to June 2020 and analysed using a combined adapted framework of the Bacchi's What's the Problem Represented to be? Framework and the Narrative Policy Framework.

Results: A food delivery "problem" dominated representations in press releases, and food supply at store level had prominence in print media.

Impact of front-of-pack nutrition labelling in consumer understanding and use across socio-economic status: A systematic review.

An unhealthy diet is a leading contributor to the increasing burden of overweight and obesity. Front-of-pack labelling (FOPL) is being recognized as a policy strategy to promote healthier choices yet there is limited evaluation of FOPL to suggest if it is effective for all population subgroups. This systematic review aimed to assess the impact of FOPL on consumer understanding and usage across socio-economic gradients.

Are the impacts of food systems on climate change being reported by the media? An Australian media analysis.

Objective: Food systems are a major contributor to climate change, producing one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions. However, public knowledge of food systems' contributions to climate change is low. One reason for low public awareness may be limited media coverage of the issue.

Who is donating to political parties in Queensland, Australia? An analysis of political donations from the food industry.

Objective: Australia's dominant food system encourages the overconsumption of foods detrimental for human and planetary health. Despite this, Australia has limited policies to reduce the burden of disease and protect the environment. Political donations from the food industry may contribute to policy inertia on this issue.

Communities Setting the Direction for Their Right to Nutritious, Affordable Food: Co-Design of the Remote Food Security Project in Australian Indigenous Communities.

Despite long histories of traditional food security, Indigenous peoples globally are disproportionately exposed to food insecurity. Addressing this imbalance must be a partnership led by Indigenous peoples in accordance with the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We report the co-design process and resulting design of a food security research project in remote Australia and examine how the co-design process considered Indigenous peoples' ways of knowing, being, and doing using the CREATE Tool.

A proposal for systematic monitoring of the commercial determinants of health: a pilot study assessing the feasibility of monitoring lobbying and political donations in Australia.

Background: The commercial determinants of health include a range of practices to promote business interests, often at the expense of public health. Corporate political practices, such as lobbying and campaign donations, are used to influence policy makers and foster a political and regulatory environment conducive to business interests. Despite recognition of their public health importance, thus far there are relatively few efforts to systematically monitor commercial political practices.

A political economy analysis protocol: Case study implementing nutrition and sustainability policy into government food procurement.

Most Australian state and territory governments have healthy food provisioning policies targeting availability of unhealthy food at the retail level, and sustainability policies promoting a life-cycle approach to procurement. However, it remains unclear if health and sustainability are important considerations in awarding contracts, and whether these high-level policies are implemented into supplier contracts. A political economy analysis framework has been developed to prospectively identify and explain barriers and enablers to policy implementation.