Both the federal government and Labor have committed to millions of dollars in funding for heart health checks.
From April 1, Australians at risk of heart disease can receive a Medicare-funded check-up.
Health experts estimate it could prevent tens of thousands of heart attacks, while saving thousands of lives.
One Australian dies of cardiovascular disease every 12 minutes, with one Australian experiencing a heart attack or stroke every five minutes.
Those figures have startled the federal coalition and Labor who have vowed to change that.
The two major parties will invest $170 million over five years to support general practice in delivering heart health check-ups.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten says heart disease is Australia's silent killer.
“I know about heart disease, my father died prematurely at the age of 70 from a catastrophic heart attack. So this is an issue that surely must be amongst the most important for our nation to deal with,” said Mr Shorten.
Health Minister Greg Hunt says the commitment will give Australians a better chance of early detection.
“So as they can know before they face the consequences of a heart disease or a heart attack that there are risk factors and if they know that there are risk factors, they can act to prevent and to protect,” Mr Hunt said.
The checks will be made available through Medicare from April, with all Australians over 45 recommended to have the check.
The age for the heart health check starts at 35 for Indigenous Australians.
Some 51 lives a day are claimed by heart disease.
Heart disease is also behind the 40,000 heart attacks that occur each year.
The Heart Foundation's chief medical advisor, Professor Garry Jennings, says he hopes to see the number of heart attacks and deaths decline.
“We've done very well over the decades. We were one of the first countries to see reductions in heart, strokes and deaths from them. But what has happened in recent years is that fall is flattening off. And it is flattening off because people's risk has changed. And we've got now more obese people, more diabetic people that are coming through. Also high blood pressure and other risks. So most Australian adults have at least one risk factor,” Prof Jennings said.
The Australian Medical Association has called the funding a good first step.
But AMA President Dr Tony Bartone says more investment is needed to allow GPs more time with patients.
“Patients are living longer, patients are having more complex and chronic illnesses as a result of that so we need to understand that is a changing paradigm, a changing presentation into our consultation rooms. That's what we struggle with the most is to accommodate the ever increasing needs into the availability of our time,” Dr Bartone said.
The government has also promised $35 million over three years to develop a vaccine for rheumatic heart disease, a deadly illness largely affecting indigenous communities.
Australia has one of the highest rates of the disease globally, with Indigenous Australians 64 times more likely than the non-Indigenous population to develop the disease and nearly 20 times more likely to die from it.
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