Doctors for the Environment Australia has urged the government to stop approving new gas projects and set a timeline to phase out gas extraction, distribution, use and exports, warning that the fossil fuel poses significant public health risks. The call, made in a report launched at Parliament House in Canberra, comes as new gas developments progress, including in the Northern Territory's Beetaloo Basin, and after approval for Woodside's North West Shelf project to operate until 2070, putting the medical body's demands directly at odds with current government policy.

The report, titled Gas and its Overlooked Health Risks, found strong links between gas and asthma, citing Australian modelling that attributed 12.3 per cent of childhood asthma cases to gas cooking, while adults exposed to burning gas faced higher risks of persistent asthma and breathlessness. Hospitality workers were highlighted as particularly vulnerable due to pollutant exposure in poorly ventilated kitchens. The organisation's executive director, Dr Kate Wylie, said gas was neither clean nor safe and called for targeted financial support to help low-income households and renters switch to electric alternatives, praising Victoria and the ACT for restricting new gas connections while urging nationwide action, noting similar restrictions in parts of Europe, the US, and a stove-replacement programme in Ecuador covering 750,000 homes.