Key Facts:
- Australia has national strategies for food and water safety but none for the air we breathe.
- Air quality is the largest environmental cause of premature death and illness in Australia, contributing to heart and lung disease, cancer, diabetes, dementia, pregnancy complications and infectious diseases.
- More than 70 organisations, led by the Centre for Safe Air, the Safer Air Project and Air Club, are calling for a National Healthy Air Strategy in the 2027-28 Budget.
- The ask is $40.5 million over three years: $4.5 million for a taskforce to develop the strategy and $36 million for a national public awareness and education campaign.
- Action on air quality returns 3 to 30 times the investment. A 5 per cent cut in exposure to fine particle pollution would deliver over $1.6 billion a year in economic benefit.
- The NSW Inquiry into Clean Indoor Air, chaired by Dr Amanda Cohn MLC, is Australia's first parliamentary inquiry into indoor air quality.
- The coalition presents its case at Parliament House on Tuesday 27 October at a Parliamentary Friends of Clean Air Quality reception, and on Wednesday 28 October at the Safer shared air conference, to be opened by Assistant Minister Rebecca White MP.
A coalition of more than 70 organisations is calling on the Federal Government to invest in a National Healthy Air Strategy in the 2027-28 Budget, taking its case to Parliament House this week, as a landmark NSW inquiry into clean indoor air adds weight to the call for national leadership.
Australia has national strategies to protect our food and water, yet no national health protection strategy exists for the air we breathe. The quality of our everyday air remains the largest environmental cause of premature death and illness in Australia, contributing to heart and lung disease, cancer, diabetes, dementia, pregnancy complications, infectious diseases, and more. It adds to the load on our hospitals and ambulances, holds children back at school, and accelerates decline in older age.
"Improved air quality brings measurable community-wide benefits to health, education and productivity, and air quality interventions are highly cost-effective. Increasing threats like extreme bushfire smoke episodes, combined with our ageing population and high burden of chronic diseases, means that air quality is a risk factor we cannot afford to ignore," said Professor Fay Johnston, Professor of Environmental Health and Director of the Centre for Safe Air.
"We need a well-coordinated strategy for healthy air because no single government agency can cover all health, educational, regulatory and environmental management strategies that work together for effective action," she continued.
The coalition, led by the Centre for Safe Air, the Safer Air Project and Air Club, includes Lung Foundation Australia, Asthma Australia, Heart Foundation, Cancer Council, Breast Cancer Network Australia, Cystic Fibrosis Australia, Emerge Australia, Public Health Association Australia, Doctors for the Environment, the Burnet Institute, the Australian Academy of Science, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Green Building Council of Australia, alongside community groups, universities, peak bodies and industry.
Together they are calling for $4.5 million over three years for a taskforce to develop the National Healthy Air Strategy, and $36 million over three years for a national public awareness and education campaign, a total of $40.5 million.
"Australia knows how to deliver healthy indoor air when it matters. We do it for livestock, we do it for art collections and we do it for data centres. Yet Australians are routinely exposed to polluted air in schools, hospitals, workplaces and public buildings. If we can prioritise protecting microchips, surely, we can prioritise protecting people. It's time for national leadership to ensure we put people first," said Dr Bronwyn King AO, founder of Air Club and a former radiation oncologist.
The coalition will spend two days in Canberra this week at events hosted by the Safer Air Project. On Tuesday 27 October they will present the call for a National Healthy Air Strategy to members of all parties at a Parliamentary Friends of Clean Air Quality reception, co-chaired by Senator Michelle Ananda-Rajah and Dr Monique Ryan MP.
On Wednesday 28 October, the Safer shared air conference, opened by Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care Rebecca White MP, brings patients, clinicians, scientists, unions, industry and government together to work through what a National Healthy Air Strategy should contain, with Dr Amanda Cohn MLC, who chaired the NSW Inquiry into Clean Indoor Air, presenting its findings.
Better management of our air is a major opportunity to protect health at every stage of life, from babies and children whose lifelong risk of chronic disease is increased by air pollution, to school children whose learning and risk of illness depend on the air in their classrooms, to people with medical conditions for whom airborne hazards can precipitate serious life-threatening complications, and older people who are at much higher risk from all airborne pollutants and pathogens.
"We all breathe the same air, but not with the same consequences. If the act of breathing a space makes someone sick, access isn't equitable, but we have an opportunity to change that. Everyone in Australia should be able to trust that the air they breathe is safe," said Plum Stone, Founder and CEO of The Safer Air Project
"The evidence, expertise and solutions to reduce the burden of unhealthy air already exist. Now we need national leadership to deliver the changes necessary to improve air quality to ensure everyone in Australia can breathe without risk of harm," Stone continued.
Beyond the significant health benefits of improving air quality, the economic case is strong. Cost-benefit analyses of action on air quality show benefits of 3 to 30 times the investment, and reducing exposure to fine particle air pollution by just 5% would deliver an economic benefit of over $1.6 billion a year. Those returns come through fewer hospital admissions and ambulance callouts, fewer days lost to illness at work and school, better learning outcomes for children and a more productive workforce.
