Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I am proud to join with other members here in the chamber to speak on this motion that not only celebrates how far we have come in the fight against AIDS but also, sadly, highlights how far we still have to go to change attitudes, stop new infections and, above all, put an end to AIDS-related deaths. In the HIV Foundation Queensland video, HIV stigmaI have judged … other people are going to judge me, the mother of a man with HIV says: 'When somebody tells you my sister has got cancer, you go "ohhh" and "I'm very sorry to hear that". They do not react in the same way about HIV-positive people.' It is that stigma which remains the biggest barrier today towards meeting the World Aids Day theme—'Getting to zero. Zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS-related deaths'. It is this stigma that the Hawke government tackled head-on with its landmark Grim Reaper campaign in the 1980s that helped change the mindset here about how best to protect all Australians from AIDS. It was Labor that established Medicare and the PBS which, in tandem, ensure that no-one with HIV-AIDS is denied medical care or the retrovirals that now mean HIV is no longer a death sentence.

Indeed, the vast majority of patients with HIV will no longer go on to develop AIDS and will be able to successfully manage their condition and remain relatively healthy for the rest of their lives. But there is still a huge way to go. Just over a decade ago, when it was hoped we were on the brink of zero new HIV infections, infection rates started to rise again and have now levelled off at just over 1,000 a year. The Kirby Institute's 2015 annual surveillance report found that there are an estimated 27,150 people in Australia who are HIV positive and there were 1,081 new diagnoses of HIV, which is very similar to the 1,028 new cases in 2013 and the 1,064 new cases in 2012.

While there is some relief that the surge in new HIV cases that began around a decade ago appears to have been capped, it is obviously deeply disappointing to see the return of a disease that many had hoped—even predicted—would be eliminated by now. Clearly, complacency has set in, with many Australians obviously believing the great success we had in previous decades in dramatically reducing the numbers of Australians with HIV meant that HIV-AIDS was no longer the threat it had once been and that precautions could be abandoned. All Australians must continue to be made aware that HIV remains a very serious threat and that the transmission of HIV can be halted by safe sex practices and through harm minimisation with intravenous drug users. But we must also ensure that those living with HIV remain free from discrimination.

While absolutely nothing will ever take the place of prevention, in the meantime the PrEP pharmaceuticals do offer the hope of a daily drug that can help prevent the vast majority of new infections. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that daily PrEP can reduce the risk of getting HIV from sex by more than 90 per cent and by more than 70 per cent amongst those who inject drugs. It was this evidence that drove this year's ALP national conference to specifically back the introduction of PrEP in our national platform. In February this year, drug company Gilead began what is expected to be a 12-month process with the TGA to license Truvada for use as a PrEP in Australia. Even then, it could be months—even years—before the drug can be listed on the subsidised PBS, which would make it available for no more than $37.70 per script.

Labor accepts the need for proper processes to ensure Australia's health system is both safe and secure. But we will be closely watching this process to ensure that, should the experts recommend it, the government acts swiftly to ensure that PrEP is made available on Australia's PBS. But, as I said at the outset, our greatest emphasis must be on redoubling our efforts to educate all Australians about the risk of HIV-AIDS and to work together to eradicate this terrible disease, while supporting those who continue to live with HIV. Our aim must remain, absolutely, as it has been in the global World AIDS Day theme for the past five years: zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination, zero AIDS-related deaths.

Debate adjourned.

See this speech in context