Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion of the member for Riverina. It is well framed and well put, and I congratulate her. As the former Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan famously proclaimed in 1999, AIDS is everybody’s business. It has been nine years since that declaration was made, and HIV-AIDS still is everybody’s business. The disease respects no national boundaries, spares no race or religion and devastates both men and women, rich and poor, black and white.

Since the first Australian case of AIDS was reported in Sydney in October 1982, Australia has not been inoculated from the threat of an HIV-AIDS pandemic. By September 2006, there were 23,065 Australians who had been infected with HIV and 6,658 Australians who had died from AIDS. In the 1980s, while other developed nations pursued policies which wrongly demonised HIV-AIDS as some sort of divine punishment for alleged sins, Australia subscribed, correctly, to the idiom that prevention is better than a cure. Australia’s approach, which focused on prevention and encouraged people to make simple changes to risky behaviour, was eminently more successful than the approaches overseas—particularly in America, which had adopted a head in the sand approach.

Over 25 years on, Australia’s rate of HIV prevalence is 75 people per 100,000 compared with 402 people per 100,000 in the United States. Australia’s incidence of AIDS is 1.3 per 100,000 compared with 14.3 per 100,000 in the United States. Looking at the stark comparison, it is not too much to say that tens of thousands of lives have been saved thanks to Australia’s pragmatic and inclusive approach to HIV-AIDS. It was the policies initially pioneered by the Hawke Labor government that kept Australia’s rates of HIV-AIDS amongst the lowest in the developed world. As those in the chamber will be aware, it has been more than two decades since our last national prevention and education campaign. A generation of students have graduated without ever having heard the grim reaper’s warning. Twenty-five years on, it is starting to look as though complacency has set in. Alarmingly, rates of new HIV infection are climbing. It is a very worrying trend, even if it comes from a comparatively low base.

Under the stewardship of the previous government, the incidence of HIV-AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases rose sharply. The world-leading approach to HIV-AIDS pioneered by the former Labor government unfortunately, sadly and regrettably eroded under the Howard government. Despite allocating $9.8 million in the 2007-08 budget for a four-year sexual health campaign, little action was taken. I am pleased to say that, while the former Howard government did almost nothing to implement this program, the Rudd government will move ahead to ensure this program is implemented as quickly as possible. The neglect of this health issue by the previous government has been acknowledged by a number of different sources.

HIV-AIDS remains a disease for which there is no cure at the moment, and I look forward to the day when there is a cure. It is vitally important we as a nation do everything we can to promote prevention. Simply saying no and having zero tolerance of drug use will not solve the problem. Those things alone cannot do it. The Rudd government understands the steps that need to be taken to protect Australians from the spread of the disease. Reducing the transmission of HIV, other blood-borne viruses and other sexually transmitted diseases is a key component of the Rudd government’s preventative health agenda. The Rudd government is committed to working in partnership with government and non-government organisations to refocus programs that will address rising rates of notification of HIV and AIDS. This will be done by strengthening the health system’s focus on preventative health, partnering with governments, researchers, clinicians and other community groups and undertaking an evaluation and review of the national HIV-AIDS strategy by the end of this year.

The Rudd government will respond to this review. The Rudd government understands that more emphasis needs to be placed on prevention. There is no silver bullet to cure HIV-AIDS—I wish there were—but health promotion which supports people in changing their behaviour is one of the most effective tools. I commend the member for Riverina for her contribution. She is a champion of this cause and I thank her very much for representing Australia so well. I look forward to her future contribution internationally on behalf of our country.

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