Lucie Rychetnik  0:08  
Okay, welcome, everybody to the final plenary session. It's really exciting to be here. It's been a wonderful day. I'm ringing in, or joining from the Dharawal Country, the beautiful country in the northern Illawarra, and I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners and pay my respects to the Elders current and emerging, and past current and emerging. My name is Lucie Rychetnik, I'm the Co-Director of the Australian Prevention Partnership Centre and Professor of Public Health at University of Sydney. And I'm really excited about today's session because today we're going to be focusing, this afternoon we're going to be focusing on the implementation of a national strategy on climate, health and well being. So we've got a plenary 10 minute plenary talk from Fiona Armstrong. And then we've got a panel of five speakers who are going to be sharing some reflections on how we actually make the implementation of this strategy happen. So Fiona Armstrong is the CEO of the Climate and Health Alliance, otherwise affectionately known as CAHA. Now it was established about 11 years ago, as an alliance of health organisations, health professionals and other groups working in health concerned about climate. And the role, really, that CAHA has been leading in terms of advocacy and movement-building, and encouraging action around climate and health. So Fiona, about two weeks ago, the Climate and Health Alliance launched the updated strategy called Healthy, Regenerative and Just, which is a strategy, a framework for a strategy, for a national strategy and climate and health. So Fiona is going to spend about 10 minutes, just outlining some of the contents from this strategy and then each of our panel members are going to reflect on how we actually get that implemented and how do we make that happen. So I'll invite as I introduce each panel member, I just invite you to spend a minute or so just saying what perspective you're coming from, and then just share some reflections from your experience and your suggestions on how you think we can progress and make this happen so that we have, make sure, that the strategy can be implemented. So I'll start with you, Fiona, I think you might have some slides that you want to share. And maybe I'll hand over to you now if I think you can do that. Great.

Fiona Armstrong  2:41  
Wonderful. Thank you so much, Lucie, and thank you for the opportunity to speak to you all today. I'm very excited to talk with you. This is the cover of the Healthy, regenerative, and Just policy framework that we've developed with hundreds of experts and stakeholders over several years. Many of you who in this meeting have generously contributed. So thank you for your contributions. So this latest version was released in late October. So it's very new, and it builds on several years of work in developing policy guidance. This work is about solutions. We work as many of you do to document and communicate the challenges of the impacts of climate change on human health. But this work is about moving on solutions moving to solutions. It's about answering the question, what do we need to do? What are the actions implied by the evidence? Who should act and what should they do? So this framework, which has been endorsed by about 50 organisations to date, provides a roadmap for the federal government to implement, in cooperation with the states and territories, a policy agenda to reduce emissions, tackle inequality, and improve health through no regrets strategies, policies and initiatives. It includes over 170 recommendations for governments, for researchers, for health service providers, for academics, accrediting bodies, for business and financial institutions.
So as we begin, I'd like to acknowledge the Land at which I'm coming to you from today. I'm on Wathaurong Country, th land of the Wathaurong people, and share the recognition and commitment of Climate and Health Alliance. We recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the traditional custodians of the land on which we live and work, and acknowledge that the sovereignty of the land that we call Australia has never been ceded. We commit to listening to and learning from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people about how we can better reflect indigenous ways of being and knowing in our work. So quick background to this work. We developed a policy framework in 2017. It might be worth knowing if you don't already that on the day that that framework was released, the ALP announced that if elected to govern that they would implement a national strategy on climate, health and well being based on this framework. They reiterated that in their 2019 policy platform, but they have not yet made that commitment ahead of the next federal election. So you might like to email them to ask if they do, or you might email your MP, asking them to support the development of the framework. And I'll show you in a minute, a tool that we have on our website. The work that I'm sharing with you today also draws on the healthy regenerative and justice agenda that we developed in 2020. We use the title again, we love it so much. And that came from a series of conversations in a project called Rewrite the future, which was really around the kind of build back better from COVID agenda, and developed a series of future scenarios called Australia in 2030. And this agenda, Healthy, Regenerative and Just, was designed to help us achieve our preferred future, our island home. So here's the tool, you can go to a link to on our homepage to email your MP if you want action on climate change in ways that will promote health and climate, health and wellbeing. So when we released the framework late last month, we sent it with an open letter to the Prime Minister and the Health Minister, responding to the government's net zero announcement with a strong call for climate action this decade to protect health and promote, tackle inequality. So the letter and the advocacy that accompanies it makes clear that the government's response is inadequate, and it offers a pathway forward. It also offers the helping hands of the health and medical community to help further develop the strategy and to support its implementation. So you're also most welcome to use this letter for inspiration if you want to write to the Prime Minister and the Health Minister, as well. So we're very clear in that the measures in this framework, Healthy, Regenerative and Just, if implemented, will help us to tackle both the climate and biodiversity crisis, and deliver significant public health, economic and environmental benefits. We're also very clear that this is not just possible, it's scientifically, economically, culturally, socially and technologically feasible. But whether or not we get to the future we want depends on the choices we make. And we heard a bit about that earlier today. By making the right choices now we can create the future that benefits everyone. But we must act soon because time is running out. So I'm really pleased that this network is going to focus on solutions, and not just the problem. The Healthy, Regenerative and Just framework is based around eight areas of policy action that you can see in this wheel diagram, and I'll unpack a little bit more about this shortly.
We do touch on, oh sorry I think we've skipped over. We're very grateful to Professor Peter Doherty for his support and writing the foreword for the 2017 and 2021 frameworks and for his ongoing advocacy in support of climate action to protect health. Just like Tony McMichael, who's been referred to lots of times today, he's a national treasure. We do touch on in the framework, why we must act, but it doesn't dwell on this. We do talk, highlight populations who are at greater risk and acknowledge the conversation that's happened today about priority populations. Imagine what the outcomes might be for Indigenous populations if we really considered them priority populations. So I'm really glad that this network is prioritising Indigenous knowledge is and I'm excited to learn from what will come out of this just like I've been learning from people like Janine Mohamed at the Lowitja Institute and others at the National Health Leadership Forum. So the framework is based around nine principles which provide the conceptual underpinning and the lens through which we should view the recommendations. They are: the right to health, communities safety and resilience, the notion of planetary boundaries and planetary health, that environmental protection is the foundation for health and well being. It also points to the notion of health and all policies as a lens to use. It points to the need for intra and inter-generational equity, and the need to minimise and manage risk. This is in large part a risk management framework and it also points to, as our earlier version did, Indigenous rights recognition and reconciliation has been critical, and also highlights that citizen engagement and community engagement in policy development is critical that all policy development must occur in consultation with an account for the needs and priorities of affected communities and stakeholders. The framework also offers actions that will help Australia to meet our obligations under several key international agreements, conventions and covenants. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement, the International social and cultural rights, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous people, the sustainable development goals. And importantly, I think the Convention on the Rights of the Child and it calls for children and young people to be included in this conversation about the future and to give them a voice in determining the policies that we choose to tackle climate change. So I'm going to highlight a few key policy recommendations in the framework. As I said, there's over 170 recommendations in total, so I won't go into them all. They all fall under the eight areas of policy action that were in the wheel diagram above. Some of the key policy recommendations include a call for legislating a 75% emissions reduction on 2005 levels by 2030, and net zero by 2035, which is what is recommended by the best available science. We call, they call for recognition and respect of knowledge, capacity and strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. And the framework calls for the implementation of the reforms set out in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. It also calls for the expansion of wilderness areas and support for traditional approaches to caring for Country. It calls for improvements in the preparedness of health and emergency services to respond to the impacts of climate change, including from extreme weather. It recommends that all health professionals be provided with education and training on climate change. And for the sector to mitigate its own greenhouse gas emissions. It calls for further funding for research, the funding that we have for this network is wonderful, but more is needed.
And in terms of implementation, it calls for a multi portfolio ministerial committee to implement the national strategy. So a National Committee simple is similar to what we have right now for our COVID response, or a similar construct of health and climate change with ministers of relevant portfolios. So in each of the areas of policy action, we outline policy directions and outcomes, and then provide a list of priority action areas as recommendations. I'm going to skip over some of these rather than go through them all. And this is really just kind of handful of some of the recommendations. I want to just touch on what it means. What's been the impact of this work and what are we expecting from it. So the 2021 edition is only just out. But I've already heard from organisations as diverse as the Queensland nurses and midwives union and the Latrobe Valley Regional Authority who are helping to support that region to make a transition away from fossil fuels, that they will be using it to guide their own policy positions at Queensland nurses and midwives union and the Latrobe Valley Regional Authority will use it to guide their planning for the next five years. We know from our experience from the 2017 framework, that when governments are ready and they're rummaging around in the garbage can of policy ideas that it pays to have some ideas available. And that's what happened. When the Queensland Government came looking for policy ideas in 2017, the 2017 framework has been the benchmark for climate and health policy in Australia and its influence the development of policy, inspiring the Queensland human health and wellbeing climate adaptation plan, influencing the inclusion of climate change in the Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing plan, influencing the recommendations in the WA climate health inquiry and informing the development of the healthy Tasmania five year strategic plan. Just to name a few. We are also working, as in CAHA is working with nine local governments in Western Sydney to apply the framework to support local government stakeholders to include climate health considerations in their policies and action plans. And you can see on the right I'm sorry, it's a bit hard to see. But they've actually expanded out the areas to work of strategic action areas to also include collaboration and partnerships for action as one of the priority areas, which we include more in as a principle. So I encourage you to check out the framework. The intention of the framework is to provide a roadmap that can be progressed into a formalised strategy, and implemented by the federal government in cooperation with the states and territories and with local government, and other stakeholders. It is, however, a framework for everyone. And there are recommendations for many different stakeholders to action. We're very proud to already have about 50 organisations sign up to endorse the framework. And we look forward to many more endorsements as we socialise it further in coming months. We're also very pleased as I said that a number of organisations are committing to reviewing their position as a matter of priority in order to declare their support for the framework. And I will just finish with a word on collaboration. The work that we do at Climate and Health Alliance is inherently collaborative. It's in the DNA of the organisation and underpins everything that we do. And I think the HEAL Network is fantastic and I'm delighted to be part of it and look forward to working together. I would just say, however, as I'm sure everyone is aware, there were two consortiums bidding for this grant. So there's another 100 or so incredible people who put their hearts and minds into another bid. And I hope that there's a way to bring as many people as possible into this work. Because this problem requires all hands on deck. As Naomi Klein says, to change everything we need everyone. So I hope that everyone with any capacity or interest can have the opportunity to bring their expertise and intellect to the work. So thanks so much for the opportunity to speak. I look forward to hearing from the panel about how we can ensure that this framework gets implemented. Thank you.

Lucie Rychetnik  18:11  
Many thanks, Fiona. That's wonderful. And indeed, I think one of the strengths of CAHA is the fact that it is an alliance and so many organisations and groups contributed to developing the framework. And as you've said, so many are already looking at how they can implement that framework. So congratulations to you and to CAHA for leading that work. So I'd like to now invite the panel to have some, make some reflections on how we can progress this. The question being, you know, how do we how can we make this happen? It's being implemented. It's influencing, thinking that the sort of local level, at the state level for how do we make it happen at the national level? So we'll start with Professor Tarun Weeramanthri, President of the Public Health Association of Australia, who you already heard from this morning. And so Tarun, welcome, and if you could just share your thoughts and reflections. Maybe you say something about the perspective that you're bringing to this question, and then share your thoughts and recommendations on implementation. 

Tarun Weeramanthri  19:14  
Thanks, Lucie. Thanks, Fiona. I'm speaking now as president of the Public Health Association of Australia. PHA is very pleased to have been a founding member of of CAHA and a signatory to the CAHA strategy that Fiona has just presented. So thank you for that. Also just want to recognise CAHA has celebrated its 10th anniversary and just recently and the product that Fiona's put before us is obviously comprehensive, updated, exciting, but it's also more than a product is also a reflection of all the activities CAHA has done, and the people involved and the processes to develop the product, etc. And it's the kind of the sum of those things that is the impact of the strategy. I'm dialling in from Whadjuk Noongar Country. I'd like to thank Auntie Linda for her Welcome this morning and join my acknowledgement of Country to that of others. In terms of the influence, Fiona has mentioned that this national strategy, even though it hasn't been adopted at a national level, has been incredibly influential, or I'm saying that. It has certainly helped the climate health inquiry and WA. And I think there's kind of two parts to this one is all the positive things that are in the that are in the strategy, which is, you know, there for everyone to see. But there's also the very significant influence of it not being adopted at a national level. And I think that it's like having an empty chair around a table. It's noticeable. And so there's been a lot of advocacy that has been positive in terms of generating change and momentum that has relied on the fact that here is the strategy, but it hasn't yet been adopted. And I don't think we can underestimate the significance of that. And we saw it being used in the run up to Glasgow. And we saw scorecards being developed internationally, which looked at Australia's national recognition of health in the nationally determined contributions, etc, its failure to adopt a national strategy, all which then becomes part of the momentum for change. And we need to now think about how to use that absence, if you like, at the moment in this next period, up to the federal election. And we are certainly using it as PHA, so we've put out our election scorecard, which says we're going to judge you against these seven things, including one of them being around climate and health. And we're going to be talking to both, all sides of politics about this in the next few months. In fact, we've got a meeting this week with one of the major parties. So this can all be used as grist to the mill of climate action. And I will also just leave you with a thought which I'm happy to come back to, which is that the in a federal system that three levels of government can all be used very creatively to put pressure on each other. So Fiona talks about a work at local government level, which is incredibly important. There's a lot of city work happening and local government work, many states are acting. And then at the national level, various things are happening, including the National Research funding that HEAL is, has received. So the very fact that this one strategy hasn't yet been adopted by the national government, doesn't mean it's not influencing and interacting with lots of other things happening at all three levels. And so we need to continue to creatively use the positive ideas and the strategy to influence all the other levels. And the fact that it hasn't yet been adopted, also to be grist for advocacy about what more needs to be done. Thanks, Lucie.

Lucie Rychetnik  23:12  
Wonderful. Thank you, Tarun. So, next panellist is Dr. Angie Bone, the Chief Health Officer of environment, the Department of Health in Victoria. So welcome, Angie. And we'll look forward to your reflections. And if you could just, again, say what perspective that you're bringing to this.

Angie Bone  23:32  
Yeah, thank you. And hello, everybody. I am delighted to have been invited to talk to you this afternoon. I'd like to acknowledge that I'm calling in from the lands of the Boonwurrung, and pay my respects to Elders past and present, and really acknowledge their deep connection to Country, to land and sea. And to acknowledge how much we must learn from them in tackling these problems around climate change and health. I am the Deputy Chief Chief Health Officer in Victoria and my portfolio is the environmental perspective. It's fairly traditionally around environmental hazards as you might expect around food and water and radiation. But I also have a very small climate and health team who sit under me. And we are very much trying to work across the department to get climate and health, both from an adaptation perspective but also from a emissions reduction perspective, kind of embedded across the organisation. I should say that my previous life before I moved to Australia in 2018, was working in Public Health England, on climate change and health with Sotiris and also with David Pention and Co. at the Sustainable Development Unit. So I try to bring that learning as much as I can as well, but I think somebody said earlier, the NHS is a very different beast to the Australian Health System. So for me, this question is all about policy change and behaviour change. You know, we know that it's not necessarily about the content, the content is brilliant. And I would really want to congratulate Fiona and everyone who's worked on this framework and strategy for just how comprehensive it is, and how there is something for everyone in there. And that doesn't really reflect how much this is everybody's business. But I think getting it onto the policy agenda can be really challenging. We've got to, not only raise the problem and the solution, but we've got to have that alignment with the politics, and also all the policy processes where people are thinking about feasibility and alignment with other levers and how receptive is a Minister going to be and what is the community support for these things. So it can be pretty hard to do policy change, but and it's not linear. And there are always setbacks, but we need to keep pursuing all the time and not be discouraged. So I think for me, I really try to apply a systems thinking process to try and to change policy, because I think that we have to understand all of the players in the system, we have to understand what their levers are and apply different arguments depending on who you're trying to influence. I think, you know, it's really important to think about not only who you're primarily trying to influence, but who influences them. And then to shape arguments to the things that will encourage change. And I do like to try and also use what we perhaps apply with individual behaviour change around understanding capability and opportunity and motivation to the policymakers as well to try to work out what is the argument that is going to most influence change. David Pention when I was asking him about how do I affect change suggested I read a book called The Switch. And so I'm going to share with you what the switch tells us to see if it helps us understand how to how to make further change. So the switch is subtitle is when change is hard.
It's based very much on the work by Jonathan Hait, which recognises that we have a rider. That's the kind of the logical, rational part of ourselves. And there is the elephant, which is the emotions, the values, the things that often drive a lot of what we do, and an acknowledgment that we need to appeal to both the rider and the elephant, if it's just the rider that we have understanding, but no action. If it's just the elephant, we have lots of passion, but no direction. And not only do we need to appeal to the rider and the elephant, we also need to appeal, we need to be able to show the path. So trying to apply that to how do we get a national strategy, climate and health actually kind of accepted. So the rider, they suggest you look for the bright spots, you look for the examples where it has worked. So obviously, the NHS, the greener NHS has been a great example, not only what they're doing, but how did they get the change. So I spent some time talking with them and I think a lot of it was about carbon footprinting. And not only just showing what the carbon reduction was, but also what the financial benefits were to the health service, and what the community benefits were. And also getting that analysis checked by other sectors to really make it so that it wasn't a bunch of tree huggers, trying to make a change, but actually really hard economic and health service pressure arguments. And I've sensed to change with COVID 19, that now, where I did find it difficulty making the pressure on health services argument, I think there is a much broader understanding now that health services are not infinite, and that we can't just keep building hospitals, just like you might build roads, that we really do need to be using public health and, you know, low, you know, value based health care to try to reduce that pressure on health services. So I think that's, that's, that's something that we could be using. I think, obviously, First Nations perspectives are really, really critical, as I alluded to in my acknowledgments. The other thing that they suggest is that you script the behaviour. That you keep it simple. And that you point to what is what it is worth to them. What do they get from that? And I think a lot of politicians are looking for legacy, or they're looking for how do they get political capital? The second area would be around the elephant. And I think that's the bit that we really need to focus on. It's about finding the feeling, what is the totemic what is the really passionate thing that the person you're trying to influence cares about? And I'm always being asked to make what my proposal is tangible, make it a thing, make it a thing that somebody can get behind and whilst I recognise that the strategy is a great thing. It might be hard for some people to feel passionate about a strategy. If you're thinking about patient groups, for example, it might be that we have to take the content of the strategy to use that. The other thing about not spooking the elephant is to shrink the change. I think that's one of the biggest challenges we have with climate change and health is that it feels so enormous, it feels too difficult to grapple with. And that may be one of whilst the the strategy is really helpful in terms of, you know, being very comprehensive. It may be that for some, it feels too big. And so again, can we take sections of it to appeal to our different interlocutors. And then the last and then in terms of the other thing I would say about feeling, it's about shame is quite a good motivator. So I was wondering if there is a report card, or something that we could do by jurisdiction, to say which jurisdictions have achieved what things are in the strategy, publish it and then that can be shared. We use that in Public Health England regarding public health outcomes to drive practice across local governments. And then the last thing is about showing the path on the roadmap. And we were starting really to have that to think about what barriers can you remove, and how can you rally the herd. That was the other main thing about aligning what we want, want to achieve with many of the other initiatives in public health about inequity, etc. So in summary, use behaviour change, be clear who you're talking to what you want, and when you want it, and make it tangible and easy. Thank you.

Lucie Rychetnik  31:39  
Wonderful. Thank you, Angie. Our next panellist is Ronda Clarke. She's a sector engagement officer from the Aboriginal Health Council in Western Australia. So welcome, Ronda, thank you so much for joining the panel. And again, if you could just say a few words about the perspective that you're bringing to your reflections.

Ronda Clarke  31:57  
Okay. First, I'd like to acknowledge the Wajuk traditional owners of the **Nunga** Nation on whose land that I'm on today and pay my respects to the Elders past, present and emerging. And what are some of the issues that need to be addressed? Let's be honest, Aboriginal people are the traditional custodians of the land on which we walk, work and live. It's important that we recognise their continuous connection to the land, sea, and the communities and acknowledge that this connection has extended and existed over 60,000 years. For Aboriginal people, their culture and their beliefs are underpinned by their dream time, their language, their skin groups, communities, as well as the land and the community they live on. The culture for Aboriginal people has continued to survive despite the ongoing traumas and experience of invasion and colonisation. So it's important for the Aboriginal people to be heard. And it's important for us to have a seat at the table. And to make sure that our Aboriginal community controlled health sector has that seat at the table. We know that the links between environmental health and primary health are crucial in the workings for any effective solution regarding climate change. We all know climate change, and health are joined. It's like a disease with impacts felt severely by our most vulnerable people across the whole of Australia. Remember, one's health is shaped by location, physical conditions, social status, poverty, control over their resources, relationships, land, food, water, air. And we all have a part to play and the need for us to come together to build a meaningful partnership. And this partnership has to be from the grassroots up to the health professionals, the policymakers, local government, state and national and it's very important to make any changes and to implement anything that this has done. And when making an implementing policies, we must always remember what may work in an urban or a metro region, may not work in rural and remote. And I'm coming from Western Australia. And can I say geographically, some of the things that might work in metro or in the eastern states, may not work in our rural and remote areas. So there needs to be flexibility. Is there opportunities out there? There's lots. There's solar panel infrastructure, travel, and these are all possible plus, you know, breaking down emission gases. We can do this. We're already doing this with MAPA. And this is connecting all of our health services so that people are getting service closer to home and with family and on country. But this is not possible without funding attached. I've heard a few talk about co-production. I think the time for co-production is there and there's our framework. Now it's time for sorry, co-design is there in our framework. Now it's time for co-production and for it to be implemented and action on the ground. What is working is the Aboriginal community controlled health services model of care is an example that I can use. And it's a unique on its approach, it's holistic, and it has eight dimensions, just like the framework has eight national areas of policy action. And can I say, if you just lose one of those dimensions, a disconnect from any of the mentioned contributes to an unhealthy or an imbalance in one's health and well being. That goes for the same for climate change, the same approach for our model of care is required or could be applied for climate change. Understanding how the ripple effects of climate change have an impact on one's health and well being in the same. Climate change has multiple drivers, many different impacts, some extreme and some not felt to later on in life. So when thinking about solutions, we must recognise that everything is connected. You can't consider climate change adaptation, mitigation strategies or a framework without considering the whole system. And health plays a very important role when it comes to this. Some of our recommendations could be, there needs to be a more simpler language and awareness out there for everybody, not just at a government level, or a hierarchy level, we need to be able to explain things at a grassroots level to people. If you want change, and we need to push that change out there. Make sure the communities benefit by you know the less family dislocation, better access to services, improved coordination and integration, continuity of care, self reliance, more advocacy and empowerment, and ensure we are still we all still have connection to our home and land and keep people healthy. The need for better understanding of the environmental impacts, such as weather conditions, growth of infectious communicable diseases that might expose or put further strain on the health system is there. COVID has already shown us that. And support the workforce not only for recovery, but also for proactively to foster resilience and for burnout. I mean, we're already burned out there now with COVID. And then there's the support and help in many different forms and types, just like a disease. You can respect the Aboriginal Elders is important. And that is that was actually showing there by Fiona today, please, people know where you should build, explore and dig for water. They know the seasons, they know the waterways and the bushes and when to burn. To make the necessary changes for us all, to really have a change in the future, we need a coordinated, flexible collaboration approach. But this can't happen without funding attached. The reality is that our planet does not well, the extreme weather patterns, rising temperatures and the number of natural disasters occurring and this is occurring on a daily basis and across the whole of Australia, all exacerbated by climate change. And these events seem to be getting more severe every year. And if we were really to call climate change a disease or pandemic, when more people take notice, and we have more awareness from everybody out there. The framework is great. Now let's implement it put some action on the ground. We want to see action is what we want and we want some funding attached to it.

Lucie Rychetnik  38:58  
Wonderful, thank you. Great Call to Action Ronda. So our next speaker is Uma Rajappa, Director of Environmental hazards at the Health Protection directorate in Queensland Health.

Uma Rajappa  39:14  
Thank you, Lucie, and congratulations, Fiona on that fantastic presentation. It's a comprehensive framework. And I'd also like to acknowledge the previous panel members for their insightful thoughts into how we can make this national strategy on climate change work. And before I start, I just want to acknowledge the traditional custodians on the land that is the Yuggera people and the Turrbal people and pay my respects to Elders past and present. So as Lucie introduced me, I'm the director of the environmental hazards unit and my role is essentially policy and legislation, recommend the recommendation on these issues. And the one of the things that we have recently achieved as Queensland Health is the development of the Queensland climate risk strategy. And that's, I'm proud to announce that it has been recently approved by the Minister. I will share some of the insights about that. But first, just looking at the national strategy, and putting on my policy hat and looking at it in a bit more detailed way. How would we make that happen? I thought that the first thing is that the obviously need the federal government leadership, which may require a bit of coaching and coxy, and a national consensus on the need for a national strategy, and how we make it happen. The other thing that we do need to resolve is setting the targets for 2030 and 2050. That is, do we go with the Paris Agreement targets? Or should we set specific targets for the health sector or be more ambitious and follow what CAHA is proposing or the UK, the National Health Service targets, which are quite ambitious, and actually, very enlightening, it's something that we in Australia should be following. And again, you know, just talking from a bureaucrats point of view, develop the appropriate governance and policy framework to meet the targets, noting the complexity of the federated Australian healthcare system. Obviously, the states are independent and they'd like to have the flexibility about local decision making. And another thing that I thought would be important is to incentivise national and state based climate and health legislation through model legislation, with a commitment to transparency in monitoring, evaluation and reporting. The key measure of the NHS success is the fact that they have legislated for carbon reduction. And one of the things that we would do through this policy, through the legislation is to create this policy environment of climate and health in all policies and projects espoused by CAHA. And obviously, you would need some kind of a national coordinating body to drive the strategy. And now, just thinking about what are the opportunities in the horizon, I thought that the the national response to the COVID 19 pandemic, despite some initial teething issues, produce, provides a good national framework for the National Climate Change Strategy. Like the pandemic, the climate change is a large scale national issue requiring significant urgent attention. And, and furthermore, I believe that the community and the industry are primed and ready. And the COP 26 summit has raised the profile and urgency of the issue. You know, I don't know about you, but I found it impossible to turn on the TV or the radio without hearing discussion on climate change and how, what can be done. And again, COVID-19 has also highlighted the need to have national capacity for manufacturing healthcare products and equipment. I mean this has the potential to reduce the life cycle of the products so you know allows for greater feedback into packaging and materials used and, and eliminate, you know, the large footprint in the supply chain. Another issue that I wanted to consider was what's worked well in other jurisdictions. So looking at what NHS has done, it has done a remarkable job of emissions accounting for healthcare system footprinting that can help guide our efforts. They have organised into four categories, the delivery of care, personal travel, supply chain, and whatever the service is that is externally commissioned, and tier them into the sources of you know, whether the direct emissions are arising from the purchased energy or that is through electricity and steam and also other types of emissions. The way, talking about our Queensland Health Strategy, what we have done is embedded the principles of climate risk management and tools into existing health system management and processes to make it business as usual. So climate risk is not treated as a separate risk but in integrated with other risks to the health system requiring integrated planning. So it creates another thing that we should know does also just not create the policy framework for decision makers but also support in terms of guidelines for consistent climate risk assessment, tools and training, for example, we have used CAHA to use the resources from the global green and healthy hospitals to support the hospital and health services to develop the climate risk action plan. So one of the measures of success that we have defined in our climate change strategy is that each entity have a Climate Action Plan. We want to start off small and, and dream big. Because you know, this is as Angie mentioned, requires significant organisational and cultural change.

Lucie Rychetnik  45:58  
Wonderful, thank you, Uma.

Uma Rajappa  45:59  
Thank you.

Lucie Rychetnik  46:00  
Than you so much. Okay, so Carmel, Associate Professor Camel Williams, Co-Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre in health and policies. Carmel if you'd like to speak about your perspective on how we make this happen. 

Carmel Williams  46:17  
Great, thank you. Can you hear me now everyone? Perfect. Wonderful. Great. Thank you. And so I'm going to be speaking to you today, I've come from a long history of health promotion of public health policy, but with a particular focus on working across government and the non government sector using a health on all policies approach. So it's not surprising really, my focus of today's talk will be about how we might be able to operationalise the health and apologies approach in a way to be able to help deliver on the ambitions that are embedded in the climate, health and well being framework. So health and all policies, as you all know, really is about delivering health considerations into the government in the decision making other government agencies and doing so regardless of the sector, the agency or even, I suppose, the level of government. But I think one of the things that we've learned in South Australia where we've been trying to do this, and I do understand other jurisdictions have been applying multi-sectoral approaches over a number of years as well, but may have been calling them something different, is actually government's not set up to collaborate or to work across portfolio boundaries. The incentives, and aren't there for public sector officials to work outside of their traditional portfolio responsibilities. And so I think, for health on all policies approach to be able to be successfully embedded, we need to create these incentives for policy, for the public sector officials to actually work with the health and climate policy groups, the NGO sector has to be able to deliver on the promise really, that a collaborative approach can bring. So what's been happening, I think, in the international community is a growing recognition of the importance of applying health and all policies and other multi-sectoral approaches and WHO has actually been incorporating a number of these, had been incorporating health on all policies into many of its global statements to try to drive this cross sector collaboration and partnerships to address a range of health and wellbeing issues. So I know that it's been incorporated into the non-communicable disease frameworks. for instance. One health and antimicrobial resistance frameworks are also using health and all polocies approach. And it's been at the heart of the work of the social determinants of health chain in WHO for many years. And there's a number of promising examples emerging globally, as well as in Australia that are showing us and pointing us in the direction around what might be some successful elements of a health on all policies approach that we can learn on and try to apply here to try and drive the collaboration, to achieve the ambitions of the climate Health and Wellbeing Framework. The first of those is good governance. And I think a number of the speakers today have talked about that. And I think what we require is governments at all levels, both local, state and federal, to really adopt and create the authorising environment for people to collaborate, to create the incentives that enable collaboration to occur and providing a mandate is often the language that's used. And this has to come from the highest level of government and I think it's clear that we really be looking forward to we look towards our federal government, who were missing in action in this at the moment. But hopefully, the climate health and well being framework and the work of the HEAL group, as well as many others, will help push and drive this agenda. But without that, it's going to be very difficult to really drive a holistic health and all policies approach without this authorising environment. But it's not impossible. Because the second most. the second important emerging factor for health and all policies approaches is the development and maintenance of strong and sound partnerships. And we've heard a lot about partnerships today. And really, at the heart of collaboration is the importance of relationships. And these relationships are really built on mutual respect and relationships that deliver benefits to both parties or all parties. And in the past, the health system, in particular has been considered to be health imperialist, often wanting to put our own policy objectives ahead of other government agencies. And this has created some challenges for the development of trusting long and sustainable partnerships. So the health system really needs to find ways of reframing its agenda and looking for those co-benefits and co-design approaches that deliver outcomes for all of the government agencies. And I think the framework does point to some of those approaches, which is very exciting. And I agree. And one of the most important things as a policy person is having a great idea and your bottom drawer, so that when the policy window of opportunity opens that you can put that idea forward and get the political buy-in and the political clout to make it happen. And so I think the climate health and environment framework really does provide us with some of those really important opportunities. To kind of reinforce the messages of some of the other panellists that the third area is really resources. Collaboration, which is inherently part of what health on all policies is about, takes extra time, and it takes focus and resources. So people must be given the opportunity to collaborate, it must be part of their job, it you can't be a good partner and a good collaborator if you've already got another full job to do. So it must be somebody's job to facilitate and manage the collaborative process. And then again, as reinforcing other speakers on the panel, you need resources to support the collaboration, collaboration takes resources, it takes money and time. And so you need both staff and funding to facilitate collaboration. You don't need huge amounts of money for collaboration approaches, but you need some. And then the fourth, and not the last. But very importantly, health on all policies approaches really do rely on access to evidence. And you know, we really want clear evidence to inform the policymaking process. And successful health on all policies approaches have been able to demonstrate how evidence can really be used to influence and inform the understanding of policymakers and other sectors and have them apply and adopt that understanding and implement that understanding as part of their policymaking process. But I think even more importantly, and sort of a recent paper by colleagues in environment science and policy, Sitra Vanevitch, he's really been pointing to the critical role that trust plays in the formation of partnerships, which is at the heart of health on all policies. And obviously, the role of trust in terms of knowledge exchange and evidence based decision making. We each intrinsically understand about the importance of trust, but I think we often fail to place it at the forefront of our practice. And I think Sitra Vanevitch and colleagues described three levels of trust, trust that's those of us, you know, in the individuals involved in the partnership. So the people actually doing the collaboration; trust in the collaborative process, the collaborative process must be seen and must be fair and so it needs to be transparent. And then trusting the organisations and the institutions, actually leading the collaboration. We need those organisations to be coming and behaving in trustworthy ways. And I think really building trust across all of these institutions does present us with a bit of a challenge, because I think we do know that the community, you know, there is lack of trust in a number of institutions within our communities. And here I'd like to point to the role that perhaps boundary spanners can play in helping to build and bridge these issues. And a boundary spanner, as you know, is somebody who's able to broker relationships between institutions and people and being able to facilitate knowledge exchange, and can help create the new opportunities that we really need to deliver on the ambitions and inherent in the climate Health and Environment framework. I think boundary spanners are able to work across the natural vertical silos of government and academia. And because let's face it, academia is also a highly siloed and bounded institution. And I think they offer great promise and hope for being able to really translate research into policy and practice and on the ground impact, and hopefully help deliver on the opportunities and present in the health and climate and Wellbeing Framework. And I think each of us who are part of the health, environment and lives network can take on the role of a boundary spanner and start to bridge these relationships across institutions and make sure we follow and develop trusting processes, and really build those diverse relationships that will enable us to all work on this journey together. So thanks.

Lucie Rychetnik  56:01  
Thanks Carmel. Thank you. So we are running short of time. But just a few reflections. There certainly seems to be a very strong theme around partnership and relationships and collaboration, recognising the expertise and the wisdom of Aboriginal peoples that comes from the long standing connections to the land, and co-fund actually funding, local partnerships and co-production. And certainly those things of collaboration have come through in so many ways, not only in the nature of Climate and Health Alliance, but also Fiona your call about reaching out and making sure that everyone's included in this HEAL network and I know Sotiris has already been reaching out to members of the other bid and including them not only in this conference, but in ongoing planning for the future work. So I think that's really positive. I Fiona I just want to give you the opportunity for a final few words before we go on to the next session.

Fiona Armstrong  56:56  
Thanks so much, Lucie. And I so appreciate the opportunity to be involved in this session and hear all those brilliant ideas. I think, what's really interesting for me just picking up on some of the kind of key things with Tarun's point that you don't have to have a national government implementing national strategy to have a nationally strategic approach. That can be achieved through the collaboration of other actors and I think that's kind of what we're seeing. Of course it would be better to have them contributing and participating and that's our goal. But I think the point that Angie made about was shame is a good one, and putting a spotlight on the work that is going on and, you know, we've heard some great examples of Victoria and Queensland who are leading in this space. And I think helping to surface those more and make sure that those efforts are joined up does mean that we can get to, you know, something approaching national consistency while having the kind of innovation that's so important at the jurisdictional level and is one of the benefits of a federal system. I think, you know, it's really heartening to hear the commitment to privileging, acknowledging and drawing on Indigenous Knowledges. And I think the point that Janine Mohamed made earlier that we can't move forward as a country without, you know, acknowledging the historical injustices and the problem of displacement and dispossession that has led us to getting into the situation that we're in, that led to the situation that we're in now and I'm really heartened by that kind of genuine commitment to, to working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and learning from them, quite frankly. You know, I mean as Ronda was saying, the community controlled Health Organisation model being such an effective one, I think, yeah. Uma pointed to, you know, the need for a national approach, but what can be achieved on the ground is significant that there is a lot of fertile ground. It's pleasing to hear from Carmel about there's so much effort going on at the international level of embedding health in all policies and I think that's something to draw on and point to, and I guess, yes, finishing again, on collaboration and partnerships, such a theme of this conversation, and that is what it's going to take. So, you know, we can all, I guess one more thing is, you know, yes, this is a very comprehensive framework, but it's also something to pick and choose from. So when we have the policy windows and the willing audience to take the pieces of it that are relevant to that to move forward and you know, we can bolt on kind of more systems approaches down the track. So it stimulated a lot of ideas for me, and I really appreciate the input from everyone. Thank you. 

Lucie Rychetnik  1:00:10  
Wonderful. Thank you Fiona. Thank you so much to the wonderful ideas from the panel members. Sotiris I know we were going to try and capture this in a word cloud but I think we are running a bit too short in time to try and to do that. So I will hand back to you because we have another final session, which hopefully will be some fun as well. So do you want to be a climate media star? I know there are many climate media stars already here on this call but for some of us who aren't, I think this might be a great opportunity to learn a bit more. So I hand over to you.

Sotiris Vardoulakis  1:00:40  
Thank you so much, Lucie. First of all, just to say, you know, what a great session, what a great panel discussion. And thanks very much to you, Fiona, Angie, Tarun, Ronda, Uma, Carmel. Fantastic conversation and it resonates a lot with me, and belive with many of the people online today. Before introducing the next speaker, the talk which promises to be fun, just two quick announcements. The posters, the HEAL 2021 posters are online or under conference materials on the on the conference website, the HEAL 2021 website. Please visit the website and look at the materials there. Kerrie Mengersen has also a brief announcement to make. Kerrie are you on the line? Okay, maybe Kerrie is not on the line. So it was a follow up to her breakout session on data science, I believe there is a Google Doc or an online resource for people to fill in information. So if you've been to Kerrie Mengersen's session, please get in touch with her and follow up the capture of information online. So without further ado, I would like to introduce the last speaker of the day. Rebecca Gredley from climate Media Centre. She's a senior Media Advisor focusing on transforming the rural and regional space on climate. Rebecca is based in Canberra here, working closely with the government and policymakers and so she'll talk about how to become a media star, I believe. Bec, the floor is yours.

Rebecca Gredley  1:02:28  
Hi, thank you. I'm just going to share my screen, so just give me one second. Hope we've all had a really great day. I know it's coming to the end of a long day so hopefully make this short and sweet. So there we go. So basically, we're taking a look at being a climate media star, why it's important, what you can do, and just ways to get started, basically. Hopefully, I know some people are quite scared of media but it's a really important thing to do and once you start doing it, it's like, just gets easier with practice and time. And most journalists are pretty friendly. People are scared of getting into an interview like a politician, it's kind of thing. But that kind of level of scrutiny is kind of reserved for them. Most news journalists will be, not quite as scary as that. So let me talk about the media centre. We are PR agency for the climate. So we provide media support for people talking about climate change impacts and solutions. And we do both proactive and reactive work. So the proactive side of it is helping groups with report launches and things like that. So we've got a longer lead in time, and really helped with planning and getting really great media angles, and basically coming up with a whole media plan and a list of journalists to contact and just really doing a big launch. And reactive work is more day to day, keeping a really close eye on headlines, what the government is saying and reaching out to our spokespeople, when we think they would be really, really like crucial part of the conversation and to just contact journalists and say: Hey, I see you're doing this story, would you like to speak to this expert? And really to broaden the voices that we're hearing on climate change in the media, which is incredibly important. And we're staffed by former journalists. So we've got experience covering broadcast, radio, online print, everything basically. So up until about the middle of this year, I was with Australian Associated Press working at the press gallery and covering climate and energy. So definitely understand the the toughness in the space and the very, very heavy politics side of it. And that's part of the reason I enjoy doing this work now to really make people feel confident to be part of that conversation because it is so politicised when it should not be. So if you're having a think about doing media, I want to run through basically our theory of change, which is that if we have clear messages, delivered loudly and proudly by trusted voices over and over, then we will shift the public narrative on climate change. And so the trusted voices part here is so, so crucial. With all of you being experts in your field can take a look here because people in Australian public really, really value hearing from trusted people. I think we've seen in the COVID-19 pandemic coverage, that science really went to the forefront of media coverage, was because the everyday person realised that they didn't know the politicians didn't know. It was a scientist who really was steering the ship and it was so great to see the experts back at the top of the game, in terms of perspective, and really just trying to push that in terms of climate change as well. So we work with veterinarians, veterinarians for climate action, we work with reef experts, a lot of work that we do is focused on Queensland as well in the reef. The decisions around that as well that the government is involved with. Farmers, doctors, bushfire survivors, and former fire chiefs. The group on the bottom right hand corner is the emergency leaders for climate action, who made up the former emergency fire chiefs. So you would have seen there were quite prominent in the media during the 2019-20 bushfires when they came out and said that they had tried to have a meeting with the Prime Minister, but we knocked back. And they really helped shift the narrative and change the conversation with those bushfires, which was really, really powerful. And so having a look now at why it's so important, basically, being an expert, and talking, speaking up, and being confident to speak up about it really helps shift the dial on the climate narrative. You might not think it makes a big difference, but it really does. So where we're at at the moment is basically we've seen the end of COP 26, with the declaration that we've got the phase down of coal, and then the fossil fuel subsidies. The federal government has committed to net zero by 2050. And they've just released modelling last Friday afternoon, it was the one of those 3pm kind of taking out the trash moments where lift, everyone's scrambling in the afternoon to get something together. And, yeah, so the cause for action, from the kind of climate movement side is that we need to really slash pollution this decade, and ensuring that we have people out there saying that is how we really have been getting the focus politically now on those midterm targets, the 2030s, the 2035s, which we're seeing the more progressive liberals now talking about. So it's incredibly powerful to be doing this kind of work. And so basically, our fundamental mission is to try and flip the narrative on climate action and reshape the conversation on climate change. And that is turning basically the government's script around, which they are doing in their own way but they've still got their, their very specific angles and framework that they see climate action. But basically, we want to, we want people to understand that climate action is the jobs and benefits, whereas climate inaction and climate change is where the cost is. So I've been doing some work with farmers where when the government comes out and says we don't want regional Australia paying for climate action, you know, we don't want the regions to be hit hard by this. And we've had farmers go out and say: Hey, actually, it's the climate change that is already costing us, like, we're already seeing that we're already seeing impacts on farm. We're so reliant on the farm, on the land, and weather systems and we're already seeing that cost there. And getting them out there is really, really powerful to help shift that story. And it changes the headlines, you know, when you can turn the government's arguments around and have that leading the stories instead, it really changes public perception. So I've got a couple of quotes here, if you're still feeling a bit hesitant about, you know, your ability to do media or your expertise, I know some scientists think that they're not really experts at all, but they really are. A lot of non experts get a lot of air time. And they really grabbed the headlines. There's some quotes here on the COP agreement. The quote is apparently, that the agreement is a green light for us to build more coal mines. So some of you might know who that was. And that was none other than Queensland Senator Matt Canavan, who had a very different take on it. So you could imagine if were able to get a bunch of spokespeople out there and say, and counter that basically, and help make people realise that that is not the case and get the headlines for going the other way. And another great quote was a politician saying that the only way to reduce methane by 30% by 2030, would be to go grab a rifle and go out and start shooting your cattle. So again, some of you might be thinking about who that was. That was our deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce. He said that one. So again, we've been working with farmers to go out and say: No, actually, that's not the case. The red meat industry has their own targets to get to net zero, which are more ambitious than the government's ones, and then pointing the finger to the gas industry and saying that's where the methane growth is and just really calling out those narratives, because the politicians are very, you know, these quotes, you might think that's ridiculous, but they're very effective at getting their messaging out. So we need to do the same. So if you're interested, we're always on the lookout for more spokespeople, people who are experts in their field, and are willing to do some media. We also offer media training. So it's not like you're just joining in and being chucked in the deep end, we do a very thorough media training so people feel confident when they start doing interviews. And if you want to take a baby step at first, feel free to write an opinion piece or get in touch. And we can help you write an opinion piece based on your experience and your perspective. And sharing your stories. We work with various media outlets, who publish opinion pieces, and they can range from 400 words to about 800 words; very conversational, they can really focus more on like a policy perspective, which we could then target to outlets like the Australian or the AFR, or more of a kind of personal pace, just sharing your your stories and why you care so much about the climate and environment and health across the ACM network, which goes all across regional Australia. And they're really great ways for people to just really connect with others, when they're seeing themselves reflected, you know, it's like: Oh, these are just other Australians, and they can really get behind that. So I'm gonna leave that there. But if you are interested, if any of that just kind of sparks my interest in you, please get in touch. We are a free service. So we're just here to help people in the climate space, basically, because we know there are a lot of groups that are quite small and don't have their own media workers. So we've got our advice to give and we're here to be supporting people, particularly over summer with the extreme weather we do a lot over there, which I know the health angle is really big, and very important. And also coming up into the election, we'll be doing some work around just making sure climate is on the agenda and people aren't getting away with just saying stuff. And even if it's not true. So do my email address down if you're interested in Yeah, please get in touch. And thank you so much for your time.

Sotiris Vardoulakis  1:12:26  
Thank you, thank you so much Bec. That was great. And, and I think would need to become all of us better media savvy and advocates. The health professionals, researchers can be very strong advocates for change and there's a lot of scope, obviously to use your services. So we're very grateful for coming, joining us today and delivering this talk, which is the last talk of the day. We had a very busy day. Fantastic talks, great sessions. Hope you enjoyed it. And please do join us tomorrow. We're starting again at half past midday Eastern Australian time and we'll have action packed programme with breakout sessions in all regions. So we look forward to seeing ypu all tomorrow. Thank you very much for being with us today and have a restful evening. Thank you