Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Siewert for her question. Senator Siewert, you would be aware that climate change is a global challenge for all countries, including Australia, and all of us need to take action to mitigate and adapt to its impacts. As part of the Australian government's response the Australian government is focused on developing a sustainable and responsive health system—you asked the Minister for Health the question—with a range of programs that can be expanded or operationalised to respond to emerging pressures, including those that are climate related.

Indeed, the Australian government released its National Climate Resilience and Adaptation Strategy in 2015. I'm sure you are aware, Senator Siewert, that the strategy recognises that in Australia national and subnational governments, businesses, households and communities all have different but important roles in managing climate risks, including those that impact on health and wellbeing. The National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework, which, as you know, was released in April 2019, provides the big picture for the work that government, industries, businesses, not-for-profits, communities and individuals in Australia must do together so that we can live successfully with these hazards, and the hazards that you have referred to in your question to me, for decades to come.

In terms of the practical steps that the government is taking, we are working with the states and territories to ensure that Australia's capacity to respond to the health impacts of climate change are appropriate and effective. They include the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, which, as you are aware, has identified climate change as a health protection priority. The committee has, in fact, asked its National Health Emergency Standing Committee to develop a national heat health framework.