Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased today to speak on this motion moved by the member for Higgins. It is vital that members in this place continue to talk about HIV until its transmission is ended in Australia and around the world. I've been lucky enough to work with the team from the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations, or the AFAO, in looking at what can be done to reach this goal.

Australia has a proud history of strong, bipartisan action on HIV. The HIV crisis was an horrific time for all of us in Australia, but, of course, most particularly for our gay and bisexual communities. I know as someone who was a nurse during this time just how bad it was—the confusion, the hysteria caused by the media, which fuelled terrible instances of homophobia and violence. I remember the isolation felt by so many of my patients during that time. The lack of understanding and the fear from healthcare staff furthered that isolation. For far too many people with HIV, nursing and health staff were the only people in the room at the end of their lives.

But then we saw the wonderful mobilisation of the LGBTIQ+ community. Community and political activists pulled together and demanded action. They demanded an end to the vilification and homophobia, and they worked with health professionals and governments to make a change—to act on the epidemic in ways that were appropriate and effective. And it worked. Government came together with the community and took decisive action. There are wonderful stories of the bipartisanship shown at this time. Under the Hawke government, which was in power through the crisis, the then Labor health minister, Neal Blewitt, set up a bipartisan committee to ensure unity on the response to the crisis. Imagine that. During such an important time for Australia, on such a vital health issue, which had divided much of the Australian community, there was political unity. This is a story all of us in this place can learn a lot from, and it should inspire the way we approach HIV policy into the future, because, while Australia has seen incredible success in its approaches to stemming HIV transmission, we aren't there yet.

I spoke earlier of my work with the AFAO. Their plan, Agenda 2025, which is mentioned in this motion, outlines steps that can be taken to eliminate transmission of HIV in Australia by 2025. I applaud them for this work. What their plan shows clearly is there's still work to be done. We know that, here in Australia, gay and bisexual men remain the key population where HIV transmission is occurring.

We are at the pointy end of the fight against HIV. That stubborn amount of transmission that requires that bit more innovation to get to it is our last piece of the puzzle. But, at their core, the same answers we found during the crisis in the eighties will be the answers to ending HIV transmission in Australia once and for all: access and information. This includes access to preventative measures, detection services and effective treatments, and information on how transmission works and how to access prevention and treatment measures—information that is culturally appropriate and accessible to all.

Over the last few decades, we have seen innovative prevention and treatment strategies come online. PrEP has changed the game on the transmission of HIV, and effective HIV treatments mean those who are diagnosed can go on to lead healthy, full lives and many can reach the point of having undetectable levels of HIV. These medications and treatments are incredible. If we utilise the technology we have before us now and invest in the technology which is still coming online, we can end HIV transmission here and go on to ending it around the world. We just need to invest in informing people and giving them fair and equitable access.

I look forward to continuing to work with AFAO on their plan and to hearing more about how we can reach this huge milestone. I encourage everybody, especially those opposite, to learn from our past, from the incredible bipartisan efforts of the Hawke Labor government, on this important issue. There's no reason at all that we can't come together again—why we can't sit down as one, in a true bipartisan nature, and discuss this issue end to end—to stop HIV transmission once and for all. My door is always open if you'd like to discuss it, and I know there wouldn't be a member on this side of the House that would close a door to such a process.

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