Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

This evening I want to talk about something which causes a great deal of concern to me and, I know, many others, particularly in the health sector. Currently, the rate of Aboriginal people infected with syphilis is 173 per 100,000, compared to 15 per 100,000 for the broader population, driven largely by an outbreak commencing in Queensland in around 2011—and I'll come to that in a moment. Principally, this outbreak is affecting young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, predominantly aged between 15 and 29 years, living in the north of the country. Commonwealth, state and territory governments have, as you'd expect, a responsibility to address these issues in a holistic and appropriate way and in ways that have resonance for young Aboriginal people. In February of this year, the Department of Health revealed in additional budget estimates that the Commonwealth had convened an enhanced response group and committed $8.8 million in funding over three years for this enhanced response. I understand that this funding is being allocated for testing and treatment, in the main, and for the supplementation of a surge workforce.

The short-term disease control interventions that are being implemented or enhanced include, among others: opportunistic and community screening and testing, particularly among young sexually active people aged less than 35 years—and we need to comprehend here our lack of understanding of how sexually active some young adolescents have been and continue to be across the bush; immediate treatment of people who are symptomatic—that is, have genital ulcerations—have tested positive for syphilis or are sexual contacts of cases; reinforcement and focus on antenatal screening for syphilis, with particular attention being paid to recommended guidelines for the at-risk population; and public health alerts, health protection education and campaigns, and active follow-up of cases. I can't stress too much the importance of education and early interventions. I say that because we've seen some real tragedies. In the 2018 budget, however, I'm concerned that there was no indication of any increase or further funding for investment in this surge response.

Here is a tremendous problem. It is very important to understand that this started as a result of the Newman government in Queensland cutting funding to public health programs. He axed 2,700 jobs in the health department, so the response to this outbreak, which commenced in 2011, was delayed even further because at the time public health services, particularly in remote and regional parts of North Queensland, were being dismantled by the Newman government. Consequently, this outbreak has been ongoing for more than seven years and could have been prevented had these funding cuts by the Campbell Newman government in Queensland not occurred.

Since the outbreak, in Queensland alone, six of 13 infants with reported congenital syphilis have died. I don't think the broader community understands the traumatic nature of what's happening here. The failure to provide proper health services in the first instance and to provide good public health programs that prevent the occurrence of syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases in remote parts of this country, particularly in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, is not properly understood or comprehended. I don't think there has been enough significant effort made by the public health experts in this country to address ways in which we can overcome this problem. We need to understand that it demonstrates very clearly that if you cut public health initiatives and public health programs then it may have, and in this case has had, enormous implications which are deleterious and impact upon the community in a very negative way.

We need to do a lot more thinking outside the square on how we address STIs. A basic principle of any communicable disease outbreak is quickly responding to diagnose and treat all cases. The ongoing syphilis outbreak and the sustained rates of STIs in remote Australia are a case in point where an urgent long-term public health response is required. While the short-term responses which the government has made are welcome, we need to ensure that an outbreak like this never occurs again. This requires long-term planning and a long-term response with sufficient funding being allocated. We need to do a great deal more, and I urge the government to do so.

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