Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion. I'd like to thank the member for Goldstein for moving this motion. I would like to recognise that tomorrow is World AIDS Day and I'd like to acknowledge and give my thoughts to all those that we have lost from AIDS related conditions and also those who are living with HIV. The theme for World AIDS Day this year is Now More Than Ever, and this is vitally important. It's important to acknowledge that Australia has done remarkably well. I'd like to acknowledge some of the leaders in this field in Australia: Professor Ron Penny; and Professor David Cooper, from the Kirby Institute, who passed away earlier this year. I acknowledge their efforts to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS related conditions.

I don't want my speech to be a history lesson in particular, but I was a registrar in the early 1980s and I well remember the fear about what was happening. In this pandemic year, it's important to remember that we went through very similar public health concerns with HIV in the early eighties, and our response to HIV-AIDS taught us many things that were put into practice in this pandemic year. The first thing that the HIV epidemic taught us was that science is important—that we must listen to the scientists. It also taught us that we can all come together in a public health campaign and work for the common good. The third thing it taught us is that politicians are indeed capable of working together for the common good. In particular, I'd like to acknowledge Peter Baum, the Liberal government's health minister in 1982; and Neal Blewett, who was the Hawke Labor government's health minister in 1983, and what they did to raise awareness and promote the public health campaigns in the early eighties that enabled Australia's response to be so good. Really, we have done remarkably well. Now more than ever, we need to concentrate on preventing transmission, on better treatments and on the Holy Grail: an immunisation for HIV. Australia will continue to do well as long as we remember this.

I'd like to congratulate all those who work in the field of HIV prevention. We know that there are still many people—over 28,000 in Australia—living with HIV. But that's the point: people now live with HIV rather than die with HIV. I well remember the children with haemophilia, thalassaemia and other blood related conditions, and indeed those with leukaemia, who received multiple transmissions and who succumbed to HIV in the early eighties, many of whom I cared for in my time at the children's hospital. I remember Eve van Grafhorst, a little baby who developed AIDS following transmission as a neonate, and the stigma that was attached to her infection and actually drove her from Australia.

We need to remember the past if we are going to progress in the future. We must remove our own inhibitions and our own fears and constraints in continuing this very important public health campaign. In particular, I congratulate the New South Wales government and eventually the federal government for supporting PrEP treatment for those at risk of HIV and for their continuing efforts in HIV education and prevention of transmission. We should also thank those that work internationally, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, to prevent infectious diseases in countries with poor public health facilities. Australia is a key partner in supporting the global fund to prevent HIV transmission in our near neighbours. We need continued, sustained funding from the Commonwealth government. I commend this motion to the parliament, and I thank the member for Goldstein for bringing it to us, but the fight goes on until we have zero HIV transmission. Thank you.

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