Australia’s ‘failing’ environmental laws will fuel further public health crises, Nobel laureate warns

Leading health professionals, including a Nobel laureate and a former Australian of the Year, say the government must put human health “front and centre” in a new generation of environment laws in the aftermath of the Covid-19 and bushfire crises.

The Nobel prize-winning immunologist Peter Doherty and the epidemiologist and former Australian of the Year Fiona Stanley are among 180 professionals who have warned the government that Australia’s “failing” environmental laws will fuel further public health crises.

In a letter to the environment minister, Sussan Ley, they’ve called on the government to use the once-in-a-decade review of Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act to strengthen environmental protections and acknowledge the importance of a healthy environment to human health.