About Us
The importance of a health voice
Our physical and mental health depends on the health of our planet: clear air, clean water, biodiversity, productive soils, nutritious food, and a stable climate.
They are all under significant threat from the mounting planetary health crisis and mass environmental destruction. In Australia, the local human health impacts of climate change have already become ominously clear. Rising temperatures, bushfires, worsening extreme weather, altered infectious disease patterns and drought are placing pressure on the health of all Australians - particularly in vulnerable communities such as children, older people, First Nations and CALD communities.
Climate change threatens liveability across Australia due to extreme weather events, and also disrupt our healthcare systems’ capacity to deliver high-quality care.
Multiple studies have shown health professionals to be the most trusted members of Australian society - they can shift public opinion on climate and reach conservative audiences who have tended to be hesitant about accepting climate change and its risks.
Our members are informed, capable, and committed to ensuring that health is a critical component of climate change discussions.
Our values:
- Respect for the natural world: we recognise the intrinsic value of the natural world, and its interconnectedness with human health.
- Right to health: the highest attainable standard of health is a fundamental right of every human being.
- Scientific integrity: we are guided by the highest standards of evidence and scientific rigour.
- First Nations leadership: we value the knowledge systems and cultural practices of First Nations peoples and seek to work in solidarity.
- Equity and justice: we acknowledge that climate change and environmental destruction are unjust, affecting some people more than others. We seek to address this imbalance.
- Non-partisanship: we are independent of party political alignment.
- Care and support: we are a supportive organisation in which all voices are heard and respected.