 Hello, I'm Dr. Belinda Townsend and I'm Deputy Director at the Menzies Centre for Health Governance and Research Fellow at the School of Regulation and Global Governance in the College of Asia and Pacific at the Australian National University. We know that the social conditions of our lives, our education, the conditions of our work, our home, communities and our environments affect our health and the social distribution of health in society. These conditions are often referred to as the social determinants of health or the causes of the causes of ill health and death. There are many preventable inequalities in society and this has been demonstrated during the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic has shone a light on the social causes of health inequities. In many countries there have been a disproportionate impact for people living in poverty, with poor housing and overcrowding, who are on lower incomes and who are living in marginalised areas. The mental health effects will likely be more severe for people in insecure employment and who experience family care and work pressures. There are also structural forces like racism, which has shaped marginalisation. COVID-19 has highlighted not only the need for strong national health systems but also for multi-sectoral, social, economic and environmental policies that address these conditions in society. We know that there are a range of barriers to generating government action for policies to address the social determinants of health. For example, institutions can be designed in ways that constrain or exclude participation of health actors and wider communities in the policymaking that affects their lives. There are also power imbalances, where powerful interests who are opposed to public health and social change exert undue influence over government. Dominant ideas and ways of thinking about society and the role of government in shaping our society can also be constraining. If we're led to believe that the status quo is the only way, then we ignore other ways of thinking and doing that can improve society and our health. The result is that it can be very difficult to get government support for addressing the social determinants of health. Instead, we get policies that focus on individuals, without understanding their economic and social context, and there is less attention to our workplaces, our housing, education, communities and environment. But despite these barriers, we have seen successful examples of policymaking for health equity and in researching what has worked and why we've identified some important strategies. First is the need to expand our thinking beyond a narrow market-oriented lens to illustrate the multiple benefits of taking a health equity approach for the economy, for gender equity, for social inclusion and for health. We can also see that having a broad coalition of actors working together helps drive multi-sectoral policies forward. Public health experts, women's organisations, trade unions, community groups, advocates on issues such as welfare, social security, climate change and the environment, human rights organisations, supportive industry bodies, independent economic experts and policymakers can work together. In Australia, we have seen government consider some of these social issues in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but a key challenge now is what policies and governance arrangements will be prioritised after the pandemic. Governments need to be bold and demonstrate leadership in prioritising policies that put health first.