4th Dec 2019, 4:34 PM – Senate Motions - Climate Change - Public Health

The majority voted against a motion introduced by Victorian Senator Richard Di Natale (Greens), which means it failed.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) acknowledges that the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Australian College of Emergency Medicine and the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, representing more than 50,000 Australian doctors, have all declared climate change a public health emergency;

(b) recognises that these highly-respected health and medical organisations have stated that climate change now poses an unprecedented and deadly threat to human lives, and have urgently called on all governments to address the climate emergency by:

(i) expediting the transition from fossil fuels to zero emission renewable energy across all economic sectors, with support to affected communities,

(ii) developing and implementing a national climate change and health strategy based on the framework developed by the health sector, and

(iii) advancing comprehensive heat hazard reduction strategies to minimise heat exposure and sensitivity across Australia, paying particular attention to the needs of vulnerable populations;

(c) further acknowledges that, through the Climate and Health Alliance, more than 50 health, social welfare and conservation groups have joined together in an open letter to the Parliament, to highlight the unprecedented and profound threat of climate change on the health of people and the health system; and

(d) calls on the Federal Government to listen to the experts, and act now to follow the 965 jurisdictions in 18 countries that have already declared a climate emergency, and take the urgent actions required to protect human and environmental health.