From a health perspective the warning is true and has been true for many years, the medical opinion has not wavered in decades.
From a social point of view it is not so simple. If you are financially comfortable being told you cannot install a wood heater, or the old one has to come out, may be annoying if you like sitting in front of a flame but it is bearable.
If you are poor it may be the only option you have for winter heat. I know a number of families who have an old ute and old chainsaw and keeping them both running is a stretch but they can go out into the bush and bring home enough firewood to keep warm in their un-insulated weatherboard where the breeze blows through the cracks at about -3C some nights and mornings. In the country there is a three-way coincidence where incomes are low, wood heating is traditional and cheap or free wood is available.
The linked article says removal does not have community support. In rural areas the lack of afordable alternatives is the main reason. If you need to burn firewood or your neighbours do it is hard to get behind the scheme no matter how much coughing you hear. There have been suggestions of subsidies to help cover the transition costs to other forms of heating but that has many problems: it is forcing change on conservative people who resent it, it would be hard to verify and most of all does nothing about the running cost of the replacement. The problem is intractable.
If there was a move to ban wood stoves I can see National Party candidates telling the electorate about those bastards in Canberra (or Sydney or another capital) who don’t know anything about real life and try to tell us how to live … it’s alright for them in their cosy Point Piper homes … yada yada. Voters will lap it up . Other parties will have to fall into line or lose too many votes. The result will be the same as the last 20 years: no change.
