Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate:

(a) notes that:

(i) Saturday, 24 October, is World Polio Day,

(ii) That the world is now very close to eradicating polio completely, and

(iii) in 1988 there were 350 000 cases of polio worldwide while in 2015 there have been just 44;

(b) welcomes:

(i) the fact that, for the first time ever, the African continent no longer has any polio endemic countries, and

(ii) by the end of this decade polio can be eradicated, making it only the second disease ever to be eradicated;

(c) supports the efforts of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative which has immunized 3 billion children globally since 1988, and spared 10 million children paralysis and deformity; and

(d) calls on the Australian Government to continue its guarantee of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative that is critical to finishing the job of ending polio.

Notice of motion altered on 5 November 2015 pursuant to standing order 77.

Question agreed to.