Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I, and also on behalf of Senator Carol Brown, move:

That the Senate—

(a)

recognises that 24 March 2011 is World Tuberculosis Day, in observance of a disease that still claims the lives of 1.7 million people every year and which:

(i)

is currently the leading killer of people living with HIV and the third leading killer of women,

(ii)

has the highest growth in the southeast Asian region, which accounted for the largest number of new tuberculosis (TB) cases in 2008, and

(iii)

could be dramatically reduced by improved detection and diagnosis;

(b)

recognises that the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria currently provides more than two-thirds of the global funding to combat TB and that:

(i)

Australia should increase aid to 0.5 per cent of gross national income to ensure the resources for TB as well as AIDS and malaria are sufficient to achieve the goal of significantly reducing the number of people suffering from these diseases, and

(ii)

action by Australia to increase its commitment may influence other donor countries to also increase their support; and

(c)

acknowledges that the widespread adoption of the new Xpert diagnostic tool, which cuts the time for diagnosis from several weeks to less than 2 hours, would lead to significant improvements in detection and treatment of TB and requests the Government to facilitate the adoption of Xpert in southeast Asia.

Question agreed to.