Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to put on record and recognise the fact that today is World AIDS Day. I know that members across this parliament remember that today is World AIDS Day and pay tribute to all the work that has been done to combat this disease. There are many people living in Australia and throughout the world with HIV and AIDS. There has been quite a lengthy journey to get to where we are now.

When AIDS first became apparent, it had a double impact. People were very sick, and there was also a stigma attached to it. The stigma was associated with the fact that it tended to be associated with same-sex relations between men and also with sharing injecting needles, but not everybody who contracted AIDS or HIV contracted it in this way, and the manner in which you contract a disease does not make it any less important.

There have been fantastic campaigns conducted by governments throughout Australia, and it is always important to be vigilant and remember the messages that were put out in the eighties that led to combating AIDS. The antiretroviral drugs that are in place now have really made a big difference, but there are still many countries in the world where HIV and AIDS are causing an enormous amount of stress and an enormous loss of life and where the education surrounding HIV and AIDS is anything but what it should be. There are still countries where there is a lot of discrimination based on people's views on sexual orientation, and it can lead to exclusion and discrimination in those communities.

Silence about HIV and AIDS leads to ignorance and will lead to the disease increasing, and those people who are vulnerable will be more vulnerable. So I share with the House today that my sister-in-law died of AIDS back in the early nineties. She was not a drug injector, but she was exposed to the virus, as was her husband, who did have same-sex relations. At the end of the day, on World AIDS Day, I always remember both of those people and all the other people who have lost their lives through AIDS.

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