Portfolio — 5 May 2026

Assistant Minister Rebecca White released updated national 24-hour movement guidelines covering physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep for adults and older adults — the first significant refresh of this framework to reflect contemporary lifestyle patterns [TA-260506-health-d9618bdda811]. The guidelines consolidate advice across moderate-to-vigorous activity, muscle-strengthening, mobility and balance, limits on sedentary time, and recommended sleep duration into a single integrated whole-day framework, and explicitly extend coverage to people with disability and chronic conditions [TA-260506-health-d9618bdda811].

The University of Wollongong led the research team responsible for the guidelines, drawing on systematic reviews, expert consultations, and community engagement to ground the recommendations in evidence and reach populations that earlier guidance did not adequately address. The portfolio frames the update as a health-equity instrument as much as a clinical one: the stated intent is to reduce health inequities across the Australian population, not merely to revise activity targets for the general adult cohort.

This positions the guidelines within a broader government approach of using national health frameworks to address structural disadvantage — a recurring theme in the health and aged care portfolio's recent public communications. No parliamentary activity was recorded for this minister on this date; today's record is drawn from the ministerial media release alone.