Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Melbourne Ports for his question. Given that we share most of the bay with our electorates in Melbourne, our waterfront communities are of course focused on the impact of climate change, but the impact of climate change goes well beyond those people who are living on our shores. It will impact significantly on our health system. This week I met with Dr Margaret Chan, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation. Dr Chan was here as a guest of the government. She advised that the health effects of climate change are one of the key World Health Organisation priorities for this region. That is not surprising, given that recent reports prepared for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for the Department of Health and Ageing and for much other work prepared for my colleagues and others outline the likely health impacts of climate change globally and here in Australia. Some of this makes very sobering reading.

Climate change poses various potential health risks in Australia which are, as I said, not going to be just limited to coastal communities. There is likely to be an increase in deaths and morbidity due to the more frequent and intense extreme weather events such as droughts, heat waves, floods and bushfires. Of course, older Australians will bear the brunt of these disasters. We will experience higher rates of infectious and vector-borne diseases—

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