Dr Marianne Gale hopes to achieve many things as Queensland’s next chief health officer, but as she begins her first year in the role, one takes precedence.
“Immunisation is clearly a priority for me,” she says from her new office in the Queensland government building on Charlotte Street in Brisbane’s CBD.
“Globally and across Australia, people have exhibited some degree of vaccination fatigue, and I understand that, but it’s also important that we don’t forget and don’t lose appreciation for how important vaccination is.”
The 44-year-old doctor has her work cut out for her.
Last year, Queensland experienced its worst flu season in a decade, with more than 95,000 cases recorded. Experts said the spike was driven in part by low vaccination rates, with Queensland’s uptake of 28 per cent the worst in the country.
While there were other contributing factors, including the emergence of a mutant strain of influenza, confusing political messaging was also blamed.
As flu cases spiked across the state in August, causing ambulance ramping rates to climb and forcing pauses on elective surgery, Premier David Crisafulli and Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie refused to answer questions about whether they had been vaccinated, and they skirted suggestions to encourage people to get the vaccine.
Gale says the government’s renewal of the free flu vaccination program and the introduction of needle-free nasal spray for children this year sends a strong signal about their support for immunisation, and she wants to see the “numbers come right down” this season.
She adds that she’s keen to listen to communities and families concerned about vaccination safety and efficacy, and underline the importance of making informed health decisions.
“I think the majority of people just want to do the right thing for themselves, and they want to make the right choice for their child … [and] for the people they love.
“It’s important that when people are seeking information about vaccines, they seek it from trusted sources, from people who actually know about the issues they’re going to discuss.”
Gale’s experience more than qualifies her to helm public messaging on immunisation programs and disease outbreaks – hallmarks of her role as chief health officer.
Born in Singapore, she migrated to Townsville in the early ’80s, returning after medical school to work as a junior doctor in the far north city’s major public hospital.
“As a young doctor, you get exposed to a lot more things [in a regional hospital], and there’s greater opportunity to learn,” she says.
The next chapter of her career was devoted to working with some of the world’s most disadvantaged communities, spending five years as a field doctor with Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders.
In her first year, she helped refugees in Myanmar on the Thai border before travelling to West Africa, South America and throughout the Asia-Pacific. These roles placed her on the front line of communicable diseases, particularly tuberculosis and HIV.
Gale says she is still passionate about the work – “I think it’s very important to consider how you can support better health outcomes for people whose lives may not be as lucky as your own” – but was ready to return to Australia after five years.
“Working in places where you see young children die from things that are preventable really affects you powerfully,” she says.
“The resilience of people to manage the pain of those situations and to continue with life. It gave me a newfound respect for what human beings can endure and what human beings can do.”
After MSF, Gale joined the NSW Health Ministry, during which time she was thrust into the public spotlight after being promoted to deputy chief health officer alongside Dr Kerry Chant during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was immensely rewarding … [and an] honour to support the New South Wales population in that role,” she recalls.
“When the opportunity arose to potentially come back to Queensland, a place where I grew up and where I started my career as a doctor … that seemed like a wonderful privilege and an amazing opportunity to do something meaningful with the skills and experience I have.”
Health equity and prevention are also in Gale’s purview as Queensland’s new top doctor.
“[I want] to go and visit around the state and meet communities and talk to frontline clinicians to understand what their issues are, what their priorities are, and how we might be able to work together,” she says.
“I’m looking forward to working with First Nations organisations and communities around Closing the Gap … [and working] again with Queenslanders around how we tackle rising rates of chronic disease, of cancer and dementia, particularly the factors that are preventable.
“It’s critical we think about prevention because it’s going to be necessary to make our hospitals sustainable. And we have to ease the pressure on our acute systems [and our] frontline clinicians.”
Queensland’s last chief health officer, Dr John Gerrard, stepped down from the role at the end of his three-year term in December 2024. Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital senior infectious disease specialist Dr Krispin Hajkowicz was scouted to be next in line following an extensive recruitment process, but that decision was abruptly rescinded by the LNP government last year. The matter was referred to the state’s corruption watchdog.
Gale was appointed to the position in October and began as Queensland’s new chief health officer on December 1.
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