Health organisations should encourage staff to avoid flying unless absolutely necessary, and should hold meetings online when possible, according to advice in a set of guiding principles for health organisations released this week by the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change.
The column this week also brings news from the Allies for Uluru Coalition, and spotlights harmful injustices, from Western Australia to Queensland. The First Nations Public Admininstration Conference sent clear messages to governments.
Scroll to the end for news of a stack of events and opportunities.
Climate emergency
As the people of Lismore and surrounds marked the one-year anniversary of catastrophic flooding, the Australian Government came under pressure over its ongoing support of fossil fuels industries, and the impacts of climate change were observed in many places around the world, and in many different ways.
Read this powerful ABC story on the lessons from Lismore.
Meanwhile, the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change has launched a set of guiding principles for health organisations to demonstrate leadership and take steps to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Under “travel smart”, health organisations are urged to promote and facilitate healthier ways to travel for staff and visitors. For example:
- Provide information and guidance on the environmental impacts of travel
- Provide access to bike storage and facilities for staff and visitors that encourage active travel
- Encourage staff and visitors to use public transport, and signposting to local network links
- Only fly when there is no other alternative
- Work with local authorities and others to achieve safer streets for active travel
- Hold meetings online when possible.
The Voice
The Allies for Uluru Coalition, representing 144 organisations and thousands of people, launched their campaign supporting a ‘Yes’ vote in the referendum to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the constitution and establish a Voice to Parliament. The Coalition supports implementation of the Uluru Statement, a constitutionally enshrined First Nations Voice and establishment of a Makarrata Commission to oversee national Treaty and truth-telling processes.
No justice
A new report examining the over-reliance on incarceration in Western Australia has highlighted the urgent need for the McGowan Government to invest in proven alternatives, with strong evidence to suggest costly prison expansions will only increase the number of people in prison without curbing crime rates or addressing the drivers of incarceration.
The report released today by the Justice Reform Initiative – an alliance which includes former parliamentarians from all sides of politics, as well as pre-eminent judicial figures, experts and Aboriginal leaders – reveals the state’s prison population increased by 29 percent from 2012 with the cost of incarceration rising dramatically also.
WA spends more than $800 million each year locking up adults and children, and has committed more than $300 million to increase the number of prison beds in 2023. The Justice Reform Initiative is calling on the WA Government to establish a Breaking the Cycle Fund to support evidence-based, community-led programs that will break the cycle of incarceration and recidivism.
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