[Photo – Left to Right: Professor Diana Egerton-Warburton OAM from the Australian College of Emergency Medicine’s Public Health and Disaster Committee, Assoc. Professor Magdalena Simonis President AFMW, Minister Lilly D’Ambrosio, Ursula Alquier Healthy Futures, Dr Aadhil Aziz Co- Deputy Victorian Chair RACGP]
Healthcare workers gathered on the steps of Parliament to ask Victorian Minister for Climate Action Lily D’Ambrosio to support Victorians to switch from gas to renewable electricity urgently to protect their health. Our friends and colleagues from Healthy Futures and Doctors for the Environment Victoria coordinated this session which AFMW was invited to participate in, shedding light on the impacts gas in the home has on children’s health and asthma in particular.
Delegates from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australian Federation of Medical Women met with Minister D’Ambrosio and Parliamentary Secretary for Women’s Health Kat Theophanous MP this morning to discuss an open letter from over 150 Victorian healthcare workers and twenty-seven health organisations outlining the health risks of gas and the need to replace it with renewable electricity.
(Read the Healthy Futures Open Letter)
Key Statements
“Electric appliances are cleaner, healthier and cheaper to run than gas ones, so switching is a win-win-win for Victorians” said Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis, President of the Australian Federation of Medical Women.
“We’re pleased that Minister D’Ambrosio is meeting with us today and that the Victorian Government is listening to health experts on this crucial issue.”
“Gas burning in homes causes asthma and can risk poisoning with carbon monoxide,” said Dr Aadhil Aziz, Co-Deputy Victorian Chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
“The Victorian government must assist households to switch from gas to renewable electricity as fast as possible.”
“Not only can household gas have direct health impacts, it’s also a huge contributor to climate change, which threatens health by increasing the frequency and severity of heatwaves, bushfires and other disasters,” said Professor Diana Egerton-Warburton OAM, from the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine’s Public Health and Disaster Committee.
The letter urges the Victorian Government to make specific commitments as part of this year’s forthcoming Update to its 2022 Gas Substitution Roadmap, including no new gas connections to homes by 2025 and means-tested financial assistance for Victorians to switch from gas to electricity. The letter notes that the ACT government has already committed to no new gas connections to homes.
Magdalena Simonis
Chair, Climate Health Action Group AFMW
President, AFMW
Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM is the Immediate Past President of the AFMW (2020-2023), former President of VMWS (2013 & 2017-2020) and current AFMW National Coordinator (2024-2026). She is a full time clinician who also holds positions on several not for profit organisations, driven by her passion for bridging gaps across the health sector. She is a leading women’s health expert, keynote speaker, climate change and gender equity advocate and government advisor. Magda is member of The Australian Health Team contributing monthly articles.
Magdalena was awarded a lifetime membership of the RACGP for her contributions which include past chair of Women in General Practice, longstanding contribution to the RACGP Expert Committee Quality Care, the RACGP eHealth Expert Committee. She is regularly invited to comment on primary care research though mainstream and medical media and contributes articles on various health issues through newsGP and other publications.
Magdalena has represented the RACGP at senate enquiries and has worked on several National Health Framework reviews. She is author of the RACGP Guide on Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery and co-reviewer of the RACGP Red Book Women’s Health Chapter, and reviewer of the RACGP White book
Both an RACGP examiner and University examiner, she undertakes general practice research and is a GP Educator with the Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, which develops education tools to assist the primary care sector identify, respond to and manage family violence . Roles outside of RACGP include the Strategy and Policy Committee for Breast Cancer Network Australia, Board Director of the Melbourne University Teaching Health Clinics and the elected GP representative to the AMA Federal Council. In 2022. she was award the AMA (Vic) Patrick Pritzwald-Steggman Award 2022, which celebrates a doctor who has made an exceptional contribution to the wellbeing of their colleagues and the community and was listed as Women’s Agenda 2022 finalist for Emerging Leader in Health.
Magdalena has presented at the United Nations as part of the Australian Assembly and was appointed the Australian representative to the World Health Organisation, World Assembly on COVID 19, by the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) in 2021. In 2023, A/Professor Simonis was included on the King’s COVID-19 Champion’s list and was also awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division for significant service to medicine through a range of roles and to women’s health.
