Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) Australia is continuing to display international leadership on the issue of HIV/AIDS by co-facilitating the 2021 United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV and AIDS;

(b) this meeting took place from 8 to 10 June and covered the progress which had been made in reducing the impact of HIV since the last High-Level Meeting in 2016;

(c) the High-Level Meeting coincides with a meeting of public health and political leaders in Australia on 17 June to discuss Agenda 2025: Ending HIV transmission in Australia;

(d) testing and treatment services combined with successful leadership from governments and civil society mean that progression from HIV to AIDS is now relatively rare in Australia;

(e) action is still needed to address rising HIV transmission among First Nations, trans and gender diverse people, and other emerging high-risk population groups;

(f) gay and bisexual men continue to bear the burden of Australia's HIV epidemic and ongoing health education among this population group is needed; and

(g) further bipartisan political action and leadership is required to meet our national target of ending HIV transmission in Australia; and

(2) recognises and acknowledges the:

(a) Agenda 2025: Ending HIV transmission in Australia strategy outlines the commitments needed to make Australia one of the first countries to eliminate HIV;

(b) journey that people have made through their diagnosis, treatment and experiences of living with HIV;

(c) tremendous efforts of peer educators, healthcare professionals, researchers and scientists in developing treatment and prevention regimes that have improved the lives of people living with HIV;

(d) success of a bipartisan approach in Australia's health response; and

(e) tireless community advocates, civil society organisations and support groups that actively tackle stigma associated with HIV.

I proudly rise to move this motion to help destigmatise HIV/AIDS and raise awareness of the efforts Australia is making to end HIV transmission. Many people may be unaware that Australia is actually leading the way on ending HIV, not just locally but internationally. As a result of our leadership we were privileged to be asked to co-facilitate the 2021 United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on AIDS in New York in June earlier this year. In fact, in 2019 we became one of only a handful of countries to achieve the 2020 HIV elimination targets set out by UNAIDS.

The meeting welcomed the recent scientific evidence that sexual transmission of HIV between adult couples does not occur when the HIV-positive partner is on effective and sustained antiretroviral treatment. The report also noted that, thanks to the increased access to antiretroviral therapy, more people are living longer with HIV. Decades of research and committed health care mean HIV/AIDS no longer is the death sentence it once was. I remember witnessing, as a young medical student, the introduction of this scourge to the world and how frightening it was not just for people in the community but even for medical practitioners. We've come a long way since the early eighties when this was an unknown epidemic.

The UN high-level meeting coincided with a meeting of public health and political leaders in Australia in June this year to discuss Agenda 2025: Ending HIV Transmission in Australia. This national strategy outlines the commitments needed to make Australia one of the first countries to eliminate HIV transmission. It's a fully costed plan which draws upon evidence based research and is backed by top researchers, leaders and clinicians in Australia's community-led HIV response. With additional investment and renewed policy settings, HIV transmission within Australia could be ended by as early as 2025. That's within the next term of government. Such an outcome provides much-needed hope and leadership that the world is on track to end AIDS by 2030. This is momentous, and we are so close. It has not been an easy journey but it is thanks to the tremendous efforts of so many—peer educators, healthcare professionals, researchers and scientists. All have worked tirelessly to improve the lives of people living with HIV. All are providing hope that AIDS elimination is just around the corner.

We know that here in Australia testing and treatment services combined with successful leadership from governments and civil society mean that progression from HIV to AIDS is now relatively rare. But there is still more to do to end transmission. HIV transmission among First Nations, trans and gender diverse people and other, emerging high-risk population groups does remain problematic. Gay and bisexual men continue to bear the burden of Australia's HIV epidemic, and ongoing health education among this population group remains a priority.

My electorate of Higgins is vibrant and diverse, and it has a large, thriving LGBTIQ+ community. I'm proud of the work my community does to ensure that stigma around HIV is diminished and that access to medicines is widened. I'm proud to be a member of Liberal Pride. Higgins is also home to world-leading HIV/AIDS research at the Burnet Institute and Alfred Health, and great advocacy groups like Thorn Harbour Health. My community campaigned, and is proud that the Commonwealth moved, to list pre-exposure prophylaxis, commonly known as PrEP, on the PBS, making it affordable and therefore more accessible—accessible by all, no matter what your means.

As some of you are all too aware, COVID changed our lives in many ways. Australians delayed health check-ups and stopped taking vital medicines. This can be seen in delayed preventative health checks, even with PrEP. We know, unfortunately, that 42 per cent of gay and bisexual men stopped taking PrEP during a short period of time early in the COVID crisis. We know this has been reversed, which is wonderful. But we need to remain vigilant. We want people to go out and make sure they take up their healthcare checks and their preventative healthcare checks. We all have a responsibility to educate others about HIV, to remove the stigma, because, when we work together, we can help end HIV transmission here in Australia and around the world.

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