Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We are all involved tonight in a resolution that is of deep interest to many Australians. Only today I had a number of young advocates from Oak Tree, an organisation that campaigns in regards to Australia’s foreign aid level, visit me. This is an occurrence for many members on a very regular basis. One of the changes that we have seen in the political system over recent years is disillusionment with major parties but very strong engagement on issues such as foreign aid.

I welcome Australia’s increasing support for the Global Fund, which was established in 2002 to dramatically increase resources to fight three of the world’s most devastating diseases: AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. That funding increase occurred at a crucial time. In the Guardian Weekly of 24 September 2010 there was a report that quoted Michel Sidibe, head of the UN HIV-AIDS agency. He talked of the momentous gains that have been made over the last few years but expressed concerns that European countries were giving $623 million less this year to HIV-AIDS programs around the world, and there was a shortfall of $10 billion in the funds needed to achieve universal access to HIV treatment. The Guardian Weekly article by Peter Beaumont said:

UNAids said access to treatment for HIV has increased 12-fold in six years, and 5.2 million people now get the drugs they need. But another 10 million who need the drugs do not get them.

He quoted Michel Sidibe as saying:

“To sustain the gains we are making, further investments in research and development are needed–not only for a small wealthy minority, but also focused to meet the needs of the majority.”

So this decision came at a time when there were some concerns that the economic crisis of the past few years, and the parallel failure of countries to meet their commitments anyway, was leading to a disturbing possibility that the significant gains being made would not be continued.

AIDS has a huge social impact and an impact on the economic productivity of developing countries. The previous speaker talked about malaria affecting most, particularly, poorer communities because of the way in which it spreads. In contrast, AIDS often largely hits the remaining educational elite of many of these African countries. Disproportionately, they are the ones amongst whom it is prevalent. Those countries have already lost many of their educated experts to other countries—they basically seize the people trained or educated overseas. It is a very crucial issue.

Around one million people die from malaria, mainly children under five, and over 300 million clinical cases are reported. Over half the world’s population in 109 countries is at risk of contracting malaria. Like AIDS, most deaths from malaria occur in Africa, with around 2,200 people dying every day.

More than two billion people suffer from tuberculosis, of which 90 per cent live in developing countries, and obviously that is clearly related to the material conditions under which they live. We know that in Australia there has to be a lot of vigilance in regard to tuberculosis in the immigration intake. For a few years we had problems because we trusted people to fulfil commitments once they arrived here, rather than ensuring that they actually got rid of the condition through treatment before they arrived here.

Each disease is debilitating and potentially deadly. When someone suffers from a combination of them it is even worse, particuarly with HIV-positive people contracting tuberculosis.

The fund has a different, I think effective, way to deliver support and to combat AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The fund works closely with donor and recipient countries, other organisations and local communities to prevent duplication, which is important, and to integrate effectively into the delivery of health programs. In other words, there is a lot of cooperation with the local system on the ground and ensuring that there is not a situation where there are a whole lot of overpaid Western professionals competing in the same market and basically falling over each other.

By increasing Australia’s support for the global fund from $145 million in 2008-10 to $210 million for 2011-13, we are making a contribution to the health, wellbeing and productivity of developing countries. The global fund has received commitments of $11.7 billion over the next three years, but needs an estimated $20 billion. I am hopeful that Australia’s initiative on this front is such that it would precipitate action from a number of other countries. As I said, there have been concerns over the past year that despite the major advances being made it will not be held because of countries retracting their offers.

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