Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I am glad of the opportunity to speak in recognition of World AIDS Day, and I thank the member for Higgins for bringing this motion. As the motion notes, HIV/AIDS has been responsible for the death of some 36 million people worldwide and, since the beginning of the epidemic, has affected more than 75 million people. While Australia's response to HIV/AIDS from the earliest days in the 1980s was forward-looking, proactive and effective, over the last few years there has been a worrying rise in the otherwise low rate of infection in this country, and this needs to be addressed as a public health priority.

Australia contributes to the worldwide challenge of reducing HIV infection and treating those with AIDS both here and abroad. The motion acknowledges the significance of the 20th international AIDS conference, which will be hosted in Melbourne in 2014. This will be a crucial opportunity for the 14,000 delegates from around 200 countries to consider our position in relation to millennium development goal No. 6, which calls for unprecedented action to first halt and then reverse the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS. On that point, the UNAIDS Global report on the AIDS epidemic 2013, released only last month, provides a sober reflection on progress made and challenges ahead. While we have achieved an estimated 33 per cent decrease in the number of annual new infections worldwide between 2001 and 2012 and a similar decrease in the number of deaths, there continue to be more than 35 million people infected by HIV. That includes 25,000 in Australia.

I wholeheartedly support part 4 of the motion that calls on the parliament to continue efforts to support medical health research and to meet the needs of people living with HIV. But in my contribution to the debate I want to add how important it is for parliament to continue to support Australia's international contribution to combatting the global epidemic. The AIDS conference in Melbourne next year will certainly consider the domestic health efforts made by participating countries. But more importantly it will consider the global AIDS epidemic and the coordinated effort required to address the epidemic wherever it occurs. The fact is that through our aid program Australia plays an important role, especially in the region, in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. I take this opportunity to include within the debate on this motion a clear call on the government to sustain Australia's work and funding when it comes to the shared international effort required to defeat HIV/AIDS.

It is salient to point out that the government has announced a $700 million cut to Australia's foreign aid budget in this financial year without providing details of how those cuts will be achieved. The cuts over the forward estimates amount to $4.5 billion. This year is nearly halfway done yet we still do not know where $700 million, or one out of every eight dollars of Australia's aid for this year, will be cut. I think it is unlikely that those cuts or the rest of the $4.5 billion to be slashed from our development assistance budget can be made across the range of bilateral, multilateral, regional and NGO programs without withdrawing funding from health initiatives that are essential to saving lives from the scourge of HIV/AIDS.

I will just mention a few of the existing commitments that we can only assume are now under question. First, there is the provision of up to $100 million over eight years, 2008 to 2015, to Indonesia for HIV prevention and care and the provision of $59 million over nine years, 2007 to 2015, for a regional program across Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines and China with a focus on harm reduction among people who inject drugs. And there is the provision of $30 million over five years, 2009 to 2013, for the Pacific Islands HIV and STI Response Fund. If the government would make a commitment that no cuts will be made to programs that address the HIV/AIDS epidemic, many people would be happy to hear it.

Under the Labor government, in 2009 we launched a new international development strategy entitled Intensifying the Response: Halting the Spread of HIV. In October 2010 we announced a 55 per cent increase in our commitment to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. What the position is now, in terms of the Australian government approach, is unknown—because the new government has not made it clear where the $700 million in cuts to international assistance will be made this year, let alone the $4.5 billion in cuts over the four years to 2016-17.

As the UNAIDS Global report notes, 'Our ability to lay the foundation for an end to the AIDS epidemic continues to be undermined by a major resource gap.' As we look forward to hosting the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne next year—the largest medical conference ever to be held in Australia—I look forward to hearing about how the government intends to maintain the absolutely critical growth path in Australia's contribution to the regional and global fight to defeat HIV/AIDS.

Debate adjourned.

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