Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to add my voice in support for the member for Leichhardt's motion, and I'm pleased to have the opportunity once again to speak on the important topic of the fight against tuberculosis. As has been noted, 24 March will be World Tuberculosis Day, commemorating the anniversary of German Nobel laureate Dr Robert Koch's 1882 discovery of the bacterium that causes TB. World TB Day is an important opportunity to increase awareness of the plight of those suffering from TB and those at high risk. It's an opportunity to remember those who have passed, to educate others about TB and to focus on further action.

I often describe Australia as a sanctuary in many ways, and it does mean that sometimes we can have the luxury of taking some things for granted. We need more Australians to be aware, as the member for Leichhardt so eloquently said in his speech, that tuberculosis is still a major problem around the world and especially right on our doorstep. It's a major challenge in many neighbouring friendly countries which are just a short flight away from our homes in Brisbane and the rest of Queensland.

Steady progress has been made recently in the fight against TB. There are measurable declines in the number of new infections and deaths, yet TB remains a stubbornly persistent and deadly challenge. Tuberculosis is now the leading infectious disease killer in the world. It kills more people than HIV and malaria combined, and partially that's a consequence of the fact that more significant progress has been made in the prevention and treatment of malaria and HIV which stands in stark contrast to the situation with TB.

In 2017, 1.6 million people died from TB worldwide with a further 10 million becoming sick with the disease. While those global numbers are trending down—and I estimate that's about five to 10 per cent lower than the numbers we were talking about here just two years ago—these are still very significant numbers of people who are sick with TB. We need to remember that half of those cases do come from nearby countries in our Asia-Pacific region—countries like PNG on our doorstep are the hot spot in this fight against this terrible disease. We also need to be aware that drug-resistant TB, specifically, is a growing threat to public health around the world.

There's estimated to be a $1.3 billion shortfall in funding for the research and development we need to see in the fight against TB. So, I continue to participate with many of my colleagues here in the Global TB Caucus and work with the groups at the forefront for the fight against TB from research to on-the-ground delivery. I've had the opportunity to see for myself the difference that targeted Australian assistance is making for the benefit of humanity in our region, and other recent events should reinforce the importance of Australia continuing to focus on playing a strong role in building the resilience and the future of our friends and neighbours in the near Pacific.

I want to congratulate the member of Leichhardt, Warren Entsch, for his longstanding leadership in this area and for encouraging me and many others here today to get involved as well as the other speakers for their generous comments; and also the member for Ryan for her longstanding advocacy for our Pacific neighbours.

I was obviously very pleased with this government's previous commitment back in 2016 of $220 million towards the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. That was a 10 per cent increase in funding on previous rounds and, when the next round is due later this year at the replenishment conference in October, I do hope—in fact I call for—for Australia to make an increased financial commitment to the Global Fund. It's helping to bring in new medicines and diagnostic tests to market, and this research and development are vital so that new simple and affordable treatment tools for TB and multidrug-resistant TB can be developed. If support dries up, our goals of the End TB Strategy will not be met.

More Australians deserve to know, as the member for Macarthur eloquently and generously said before, that Australia's funding here does form one of the cornerstones in the global fight to eradicate TB. On top of the support that Australia provides in a bilateral way to our close neighbours and friends in countries like PNG and Kiribati, we're providing funding jointly with the World Bank, for instance, to support testing and treatment and an initiative to achieve universal testing in Daru in PNG, and $75 million for product development partnerships in the Indo-Pacific Health Security Initiative. It was very good to see the foreign minister in Brisbane a bit over a year ago announce the package of measures and initiatives that comprise that initiative. We must continue to build on this legacy into the future.

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