The recent announcement comes at a critical time for Australia’s health system. We have been calling for health reform that includes a climate lens and this is a step in the right direction.
Objectives
The 4 core objectives of the strategy are:
- Health system resilience: build a climate-resilient health system and enhance its capacity to protect health and wellbeing from the impacts of climate change.
- Health system decarbonisation: build a sustainable, high quality, net zero health system.
- International collaboration: collaborate internationally to build sustainable, climate-resilient health systems and communities.
- Health in all policies: support healthy, climate-resilient and sustainable communities through whole-of-government action which recognises the relationship between health and climate outcomes.
Required Actions
Actions required to achieve this include:
- workforce, leadership and training
- research and innovation
- communication and engagement
- collaboration and governance.
CHAG
AFMW’s Climate Health Action Group (CHAG) agrees and will continue to commit to ongoing efforts applying the gender lens. The voices of more women is needed urgently as climate change affects women more than men.
COP28
COP28 has not gone well if you consider the inflammatory climate statements made by its current President. It was a shocking disappointment to have COP28 kick off with refusal to accept that all fossil fuel use must be stopped if the planet is to remain habitable by all, living creatures.
This is s call to us for stronger action.
Further Information
Visit the National Health and Climate Strategy website.
Magdalena Simonis AM
Chair CHAG
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.
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.
