News and updates

Last week, McCabe Centre’s Legal Policy Adviser, Clare Slattery presented on “why law is a critical tool for addressing the cancer burden of alcohol, including a case study on cancer warning labels in Ireland”. Over 100 people tuned in to the presentation on the Turning Point platform.

It’s time to talk about how food systems, health and climate intersect. Reflections from the WHO ACE Regional Roundtable on Food Systems, Health, Climate and Environment

Our McCabe Centre was honoured to be invited to present in a range of sessions at the World Conference on Tobacco Control Conference in Dublin, Ireland - 23-25 June 2025. The conference presented a valuable opportunity to connect and collaborate, at a crucial time in the global fight against tobacco.

Every day, tobacco and nicotine industries use carefully engineered products and deceptive tactics to hook a new generation of users and keep existing ones. Tobacco and nicotine industries use insidious strategies to make their harmful products appealing, especially to young people.

Our Pacific Regional Advisor, Delphina Kerslake was part of the International experts team who worked together with the national experts team of the Cook Islands in providing technical review for the first Joint External Evaluation (JEE) for health security in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO).

At the McCabe Centre for Law & Cancer, we’ve always believed in the power of the law and its effectiveness to prevent and control cancer. And for over a decade, our International Legal Training Program (ILTP) has been equipping legal and policy professionals with the skills to drive real change.

If I look back to when I finished school, I had interests in both law and health. I studied biomedicine in my undergraduate degree and have subsequently gone on to study law but had not yet found a way to combine the two areas of interest. Fortunately, I came across the McCabe Centre through the Melbourne Law School’s legal internship program.

Reflections on the 2nd WHO Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health: There are few things more important to life than the air we breathe. Yet almost nobody on the planet has access to clean air - 99% of the world live somewhere where the air fails to meet the World Health Organization’s air quality standards, and air pollution kills more than 7 million people each year.

Human rights law recognises that cancer prevention protects and promotes our right to health. Suzanne Zhou, from the McCabe Centre for Law and Cancer and member of the WCRF Policy Advisory Group, explains how and why cancer prevention advocates must engage with this body of law to maximise the co-benefits of human rights and cancer prevention policies in this piece for World Cancer Research Fund.

How do gender dynamics shape cancer prevention, treatment, and care? UICC’s new 9-week online course explores this critical issue, offering insights from the Lancet Commission on women, power and cancer. This new course covers the influence of gender dynamics in cancer prevention, treatment, and care -and how to advocate for change.

After over 16 years of dedicated service to the McCabe Centre for Law and Cancer and Cancer Council Victoria, we extend our deepest gratitude to Sondra Davoren, as she leaves the McCabe Centre and takes up a new role as Senior Legal Counsel at Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora.

Kenya is stepping up its efforts to protect their communities by introducing new public health graphic health warnings on tobacco products.

Earlier this week our McCabe Centre team presented at a VCCC Alliance webinar to spotlight the experiences of people affected by cancer and to advocate for carer rights to be better adopted in Australian and Victorian law and policy.

This week’s WHO Western Pacific webinar explored two decades of progress in tobacco control in the region and the urgent challenges ahead.

This treaty has changed millions of lives, helping to reduce tobacco use, protect communities, and prevent countless diseases.