Premier Anna Bligh and health minister Paul Lucas started a campaign to transform Queenslanders into the nation's healthiest group of people.

Both ministers launched the 2010 Healthy Queensland Awards with a $1.6 million prize up for grabs. The premier said, “The goal of the Healthy Queensland Awards is to reward communities, schools and workplaces that help Queenslanders be more active, make healthier food choices, achieve and maintain a healthy weight, be smoke free and encourage responsible drinking.”

In a joint statement, Bligh and Lucas remained grateful for working again with Keep Australia Beautiful Queensland (KAB-Q) for the Healthy Queensland Awards.

Lucas said, “These awards are important because they motivate Queenslanders to work together to create healthier places to live, work, learn and play.”

Initial support for the action was seen in Parliamentary Secretary for Healthy Living Murray Watt. According to the secretary, Queenslanders “have the highest rates of death from skin cancer and the second highest from heart disease and stroke in the nation.”

The campaign is also expected to reduce the number of health complaints in the state. The Health Quality and Complaints Commission's (HQCC) annual report shows Queenslanders made more than 2200 complaints about health care in 2009.

The HQCC report disclosed that 70 percent of the complaints were on hospitals and doctors. Public hospitals ranked first in the list of complaints about facilities. Doctors received a 78 percent rating which placed them first among practitioners complained about while dentists followed suit with a 15 percent rating.