Hotter climate 'is making our kids sick', warns Indi MP Helen Haines

Doctors for Environment Australia held a rally on the lawn outside Parliament House in the morning, where they had pledges from major medical colleges and health professionals demanding urgent action.

They were joined by politicians including Indi MP Helen Haines.

It was part of the the No Time for Games campaign, calling for an urgent plan to protect children from health issues caused by the climate.

Speaking in Parliament later, Dr Haines said climate change was pushing diseases further south such as dengue fever, which can increase maternal and infant mortality.

"A hotter world with a more unpredictable climate has dire implications for every aspect of human health and our children are most at risk," she said.

"We know that bushfires, dust storms and thunderstorms will become more frequent and more intense, making life worse for the one in ten Australians who suffer from asthma, especially country kids, who are most at risk."

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She said 2009's Black Saturday bushfires already showed what can happen in a heatwave, but research has predicted that by 2050, a heatwave in a capital could kill more than 1000 people.

"As a rural Australian who has worked in public health for more than three decades, I know that a warming climate will add yet more strain to our already stretched emergency departments and the hardworking doctors and nurses who staff them," Dr Haines said.

"The world is heating up, and it is making our kids sick, and so a plan for decarbonisation is a public health imperative.

"It's time to stop the games and act for our kids."

Meanwhile Farrer MP and Environment Minister Sussan Ley spoke the launch of a report by Farmers for Climate Action and reiterated comments she made during the election campaign that the science behind climate change was conclusive.

"We're also in a period of terrible drought and we face those all too many times," she said.

"We do need to look at it in a different context and develop long term strategies and ways to adapt."

She said it was important that conservation and agriculture worked together because the country was facing real challenges from climate change now and in the future.