Doctors reject AMA chief’s stance on Hazelwood closure and health

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.

The head of the Australian Medical Association said
while the closure of Victoria’s Hazelwood coal-fired
power plant was ‘good news’ for people who suffered
respiratory illnesses, ‘there is also the health
 effects of unemployment that need to be considered’. 

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”.

Read Helen Davidson’s story on The Guardian - “Doctors reject AMA chief’s stance on Hazelwood closure and health.”