Australia's environment and its influences on health.

While the Australian geographic environment is essentially benign, we have had a history of imported infectious diseases which requires continual surveillance to avoid recurring in this age of high international mobility. Urbanisation and an ageing population provide what is now a common picture of health care problems found in most Western societies. There is renewed emphasis on environmental health policy making and the development of stronger strategies of health conservation in the workplace. Many of these efforts have to cope with the difficult legislative arrangements relating to Federal and State jurisdictions.