Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator Pratt, I move:

That the Senate—

(a)   notes that:

     (i) 24 March is World Tuberculosis (TB) Day, commemorating the lives lost to this disease and recognising the impacts of COVID-19 on TB services globally,

     (ii) TB remains one of the deadliest airborne infectious diseases, including 15 million deaths in the last decade,

     (iii) years of progress in fighting TB could be lost due to disruption of services from COVID-19, and

     (iv) the United Nations has reported that global targets on TB, to which Australia agreed, will not be met, and that 1.4 million more people are likely to die from TB in the next five years if urgent action is not taken;

(b) acknowledges that:

     (i) Australia's $1.1 billion of international COVID-19 support, pledges to multilateral organisations and our $242 million to the global fund will help save millions of lives,

     (ii) $13.3 million from Australia in 2019 will support antimicrobial resistance and drug-resistant TB research in the Pacific, and

     (iii) Australian investment in TB research has resulted in drug therapies that radically reduce the burden of treatment; and

(c) calls on the Government to increase investment in research and development, and Asia Pacific TB services to safeguard current progress towards meeting global targets agreed by Australia.

Question agreed to.