Cassy O’Connor MP | Greens Leader
COVID-19 has infected close to 300,000 Tasmanians, causing 290 deaths and leaving thousands with long term health conditions as a result.
This is a consequence of a callous ‘let it rip’ approach to a lethal pathogen adopted by governments around Australia, including Tasmania’s.
We do have the tools to stem disease, disability and deaths, but governments are refusing to deploy them.
Like clean drinking water, it’s a fundamental human right to breathe clean air. The Greens’ Clean Air Package is what Tasmania needs to keep the community as safe from Covid as possible.
We recognise it’s the core business of government to keep people safe and we prioritise this responsibility in our Alternative Budget.
The best way of keeping schools Covid-safe is to have an open, comprehensive plan for ventilation, air filtration, and infection mitigation, along with a strategy to increase flagging vaccination rates in young people.
Our plan provides $20 million for clean air upgrades in public healthcare and education, ensuring Tasmania’s most vulnerable are protected from Covid and its long term health impacts.
Experts around the world have been calling for clean air standards. In places like US, France, and Belgium, governments are listening, and responding with regulations and infrastructure upgrades to clean the air people breathe.
Tasmania must too. The Greens demonstrate how it’s cost-effective and achievable to develop clean air standards and regulations. The program would be phased-in, and accompanied by a new education and awareness campaign via an empowered Public Health, and there would be resources for compliance.
The Greens’ plan also provides clean air financing for community organisations and businesses to help them clean their air and meet new compliance obligations. We also invest $10 million into a grants program and low interest loans for medium and large businesses to invest in filtration and ventilation audits and upgrades.
Our Clean Air Package acknowledges the reality of Covid, tackles its community spread, and mitigates the serious impacts of infection and reinfection. This is a win for health and for our economy which is increasingly feeling the negative impacts of workforce shortages caused by Covid.
We’ve followed the science, not minimised the seriousness of Covid-19.
We listened to the experts and our plan ensures Tasmanians have the clean air they need for their long-term health and wellbeing.
You can read our Clean Air Package here – https://tasmps.greens.org.au/policy/plan-clean-air
You can read our full Alternative Budget here – https://tasmps.greens.org.au/policy/alternative-budget-2023-24