Australian Medical Association accused of supporting politics over science after Dr Michael Gannon said impact of job losses may outweigh health benefits

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Members of the Australian Medical Association have threatened to quit over comments by the national president, Dr Michael Gannon, that the impact of job losses from Victoria’s Hazelwood power plant closure should be considered as well as the health benefits.

Gannon has been accused of contradicting clear AMA policy on clean air and going back on his pledge to be less political than his predecessor, but the head of Australia’s peak medical body has denied both accusations.

The AMA’s former vice president Dr Stephen Parnis told the Doctors for the Environment Australia conference on Sunday that Gannon’s comments were “a wilful distortion of AMA policy”.

Impact of job losses in Hazelwood may outweigh health benefits, AMA says Read more

On Wednesday Gannon told Guardian Australia the health benefits of closing down brown coal power plants need to be considered alongside the health impacts of unemployment and blackouts.

While he said the closure of the coal-fired plant was “good news” for children with asthma, the elderly and people who suffered respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses, “there is also the health effects of unemployment that need to be considered”.

“The Australian Medical Association has clear positions about the risk of providing energy supply through fossil fuels and specifically the risk of brown coal, but somewhere in this we would call for common sense,” he said.

“We need stable base-load power as well, and we need grown-up conversations about gas and nuclear power while technology is developed to deliver renewable energy.”

The AMA has received several letters of complaint from its members, including threats to quit the organisation, and accusations that Gannon has gone back on his pledge to be less political than his predecessor.

One letter accused the AMA of supporting political statements instead of an “evidence-based approach” to health.

“Yes, doctors know that unemployment is destructive to health, but [that] didn’t prevent the AMA from making a stand against the tobacco industry, with resultant lack of jobs,” the letter said.

“Unless this issue is addressed urgently, the world is likely to overshoot the 2C guardrail of warming, creating huge health, social and economic disruption. I would hope the AMA looks at the science rather than the politics, and actually leads rather than follows the politicians from both our major political parties.”

A response by the AMA’s director of public health, Simon Tatz, sought to reassure that the AMA “believes that climate change poses a significant worldwide threat to health, and urgent action is required to reduce this potential harm”.

“While I can understand your concern at the comments that were recently made, I urge you to consider the AMA’s stated policy positions on climate change and human health,” Tatz said.

On Sunday Parnis said Gannon’s comments were a “wilful distortion of AMA policy” and could be interpreted as “trying to put a handbrake on the health benefits of what was a commercial decision to close the Hazelwood power station”.

“I have some hesitation in saying that, but I think it was a distortion, a misrepresentation of the AMA policy, of which I remain very proud,” he said.

Parnis also suggested Gannon had not acknowledged the health effects of the power station on the people of the La Trobe valley over decades, which Gannon has disputed.

Parnis had not spoken publicly about the AMA since he left his role as vice president in May, but told Guardian Australia he though the issue was too important to stay quiet.



Parnis oversaw the renewal and review of the clean air policy in 2015 and told Guardian Australia he “took exception” to Gannon’s comments, as did a number of other members.

“It’s hard to be clear about the level of antipathy towards what was said,” he said. “There is a spectrum of opinion in a broad church like the AMA, but I certainly didn’t hear anyone happy with them.”

Gannon said he was aware of the complaints, but said neither he nor the AMA equated the loss of jobs at Hazelwood with the environmental and health benefits that would come from its closure.

“The AMA is one of the leading advocates on the issue of climate health,” he said. “It’s just that the AMA has a global view on all of these issues, and I think we can walk and chew gum at same time.”

Gannon said he was pointing out there were health impacts from unemployment and carbon abatement, but was at no stage suggesting it was of equal priority to the health benefits of closing a power station which relied on “the dirtiest form of coal”.

Gloom in the valley as Hazelwood fades to black | Gay Alcorn Read more

“We need to be cleverer and smarter about carbon abatement and the necessary changes in society to reduce the impacts of climate change,” he said.

“The necessary changes in changing our energy mix and reducing pollution will have victims and we just need to think about that.”

Asked to elaborate on his earlier comments suggesting the right balance had not yet been struck before closing Hazelwood, Gannon said a safe base-load power had to be ensured as Australia moved towards a greater renewable proportion in the energy mix, and cited the South Australian blackout.

“We just need a secure energy supply, and that does not for one minute diminish very clear AMA policy which is there,” he said.

“Every member that telephoned or emailed the AMA was responded to and they were pointed in the direction of our policy which talks about all of this – the need to reduce the carbon footprint of our society.”

Gannon said he wasn’t being political as the power plant was being shut down by a French multinational corporation, and said while climate change was “highly political” he had not been taking a political line.