Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator Singh, I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

  (i) 24 March 2019 is World Tuberculosis Day and marks the anniversary of German Nobel Laureate Dr Robert Koch's 1882 discovery of the bacterium that causes Tuberculosis (TB),

  (ii) TB, including drug-resistant TB, has overtaken HIV and AIDS to become the infectious disease responsible for the most deaths globally,

  (iii) in 2017 alone, 1.6 million people died from TB worldwide and 10 million people became sick with the disease,

  (iv) large gaps in TB detection and treatment remain, with 4.1 million cases of active TB that were not diagnosed and treated in 2016, including 600,000 children,

  (v) according to the World Health Organisation, in 2017, 62% of the world's new TB cases occurred in the Asia-Pacific region,

  (vi) in 2016, Papua New Guinea (PNG) had one of the highest rates of TB infection in the Pacific, with an estimated 35,000 total cases, including 2,000 drug­ resistant cases,

  (vii) Australia signed onto a new set of Global Goals for Sustainable Development, including a target to end the TB epidemic by 2030,

  (viii) the theme for World TB Day 2019 is 'It's time....to keep the promise', and

  (ix) the promises made by the global community at the United Nations High­ Level Meeting on TB, in September 2018, included a commitment by Australia to accelerate action towards ending TB as an epidemic through increased efforts and leadership on research and development, prevention, testing and treatment;

(b) recognises Australia's 3-year $220 million pledge to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (2017-19), which has supported TB testing and treatment to 17.4 million people since 2002, including over 8.2 million people in the lndo-Pacific region; and

(c) calls on the Australian Government to renew its commitment to the Global Fund, in line with the requests to be made at the 6th replenishment conference on 10 October 2019, which aims to raise a further US$14 billion for 2020 to 2022.

Question agreed to.