2025 Federal election strategy

Making cleaner indoor air an accessibility right - for everyone.

Why this matters

We spend 90% of our time indoors. Yet millions of Australians are unknowingly exposed to poor air quality every day - at school, at work, in healthcare, and in the places we live. For people living with chronic health conditions, these environments are not just uncomfortable, they’re unsafe.

Clean indoor air is foundational for health, learning, equity, and participation. But it’s not guaranteed.

Airborne viruses like COVID-19, flu, RSV and measles - as well as pollution from bushfire smoke or damp buildings - disproportionately harm people with pre-existing conditions. But poor air quality affects everyone. One in two Australians lives with at least one chronic illness. This isn’t about a vulnerable minority. This is about all of us.

It’s time to make clean indoor air a public health priority and an accessibility right.

This is solvable

The science is clear. The tools already exist. What’s missing is coordinated leadership and the will to act.

Australia has an opportunity to lead the world by embedding IAQ in the fabric of our public health and accessibility systems.

How can you help?

Take a moment to email the link to our report to your federal MP and candidates, and let them know that safer shared air is important to you. You can find the contact details for your federal MP here, and candidates running in your seat here.

Let’s make 2025 the turning point. Together, we can create safer, more inclusive indoor environments - for everyone.

Our call to action

Government action: 6 priority recommendations for 2025

  1. Acknowledge IAQ as an accessibility issue
    Recognise that access to clean indoor air is an inclusion and human rights issue - one that aligns with Australia’s Disability Strategy and existing obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.

  2. Set and implement indoor air quality performance standards
    Establish legally enforceable IAQ benchmarks that reduce health risks from airborne pathogens and pollutants in all public indoor spaces. Update the Premises Standards to include IAQ as an essential accessibility feature.

  3. Strengthen workplace health and safety enforcement
    Close the implementation gap in existing WHS laws by mandating proactive IAQ risk reduction - especially in high-risk settings like healthcare, education, aged care, and community services.

  4. Prioritise action in four critical settings
    Implement IAQ standards in:

    • Education
      (early childhood, primary and secondary schools)

    • Healthcare
      (hospitals, primary care, pharmacies, allied health)

    • Residential care
      (aged care, disability and community housing)

    • Workplaces
      (across public and private sectors)

  5. Expand the CDC's mandate to include infection control
    Direct the new Australian Centre for Disease Control to coordinate national guidance on infection prevention and control (IPC), recognising that IPC is not just a healthcare issue - it’s a whole-of-society responsibility.

  6. Commission a national benefit-cost analysis
    Task the Productivity Commission with a full-scale economic evaluation of IAQ upgrades in public spaces. Preliminary analysis already shows a benefit-to-cost ratio of up to 3:1, with the potential to save $24–$50 billion over three years.