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

It is indeed timely that this resolution is before the Federation Chamber today, because, as other speakers have mentioned, it is World Tuberculosis Day and there has been the foundation forum here today to discuss the issues related to it, but also because the respected NGO RESULTS visited many members over the past week. RESULTS, whilst critical of the government's reduction in foreign aid, in discussions with me certainly praised the government's three-year package of $15 million towards combating tuberculosis. They further noted, on 5 February, in congratulating this initiative:

However, failure to address the lack of effective diagnostics, drugs and vaccines will continue to result in major long-term human and economic costs …

They also cite the reality that there is not only the impact upon the individual and the local society. Where you have a situation where it is the third main cause of women's deaths in the 15- to 44-year-old age group, there is the impact on young children of losing their mothers. But this is also, of course, an economically important problem facing the world. It is estimated by RESULTS that $1 trillion to $3 trillion over the next 10 years will be lost in regard to the world economy. The World Bank has further estimated that a loss of productivity of four to seven per cent of GDP in a significant number of nations is the result of the presence of tuberculosis.

Whilst it has been around with us since 7000 BC, and whilst we have of course had some major improvements in this country, it is no accident that four of the six speakers on this particular motion come from Queensland, because this problem in Papua New Guinea in particular—and, on a broader front, the Pacific—is such that it is having an impact on this country in regard to the reported instances of it. Papua New Guinea has had an alarming growth of 47 per cent over the last decade in the number of reported cases. We are talking about a situation where, as other speakers have indicated, between 1.4 and 1.7 million people—there are different estimates—die from this each year, and nine million new cases are reported. Due to the collapse of the health system in Papua New Guinea—and we have had various speakers in this parliament before a variety of committees testifying to that—the situation in Papua New Guinea is alarming, and it will have an impact on this country because of cross-border movement.

The micro-organism can survive in a dry state for many weeks, which is part of the problem we face. First-line drugs must be taken for six to nine months, and if that is not fulfilled then we have the very serious growth of strains that are not liable to be combated by the multidrug attacks on it.

The situation now is that we have an international strategy from the World Health Assembly which indicates that the World Health Organization is seeking to eliminate tuberculosis in countries with low levels of the disease, targeting 33 countries and territories where there are fewer than 100 TB cases per million population, aiming to have fewer than 10 new TB cases per million in these countries by 2035, and total elimination by 2050. That is commendable; that is worthwhile. However, as indicated by a variety of speakers, in our particular part of the world, in the Pacific, and also in Africa, it is endemic in certain countries. While it has fallen by 40 per cent in number of deaths since 1990, the number of new cases are in decline. It has proved extremely resilient.

I commend the speakers in their efforts to highlight the problems of this disease. It is interesting that two Nobel Prizes over history have been given in the field of combating tuberculosis, but obviously we still have a very real issue.

In conclusion, I hope the member for Bowman is not indicating the use of props at a later stage in the next debate. It would be quite alarming.

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