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

Before moving general business notice of motion No. 597, I ask that the name of Senator Faruqi be added to the motion. At the request of Senators Pratt, Scarr and Faruqi, I move:

That the Senate–

(a) notes that:

  (i) World Tuberculosis day (TB) Day is 24 March each year,

  (ii) TB is contagious and airborne, is the world's leading infectious disease killer and kills more people than HIV/AIDS,

  (iii) according to the World Health Organisation, in 2018 alone, an estimated 10 million people became ill with TB,

  (iv) according to estimates from Australian researchers, there are 1 million people in Australia infected with latent TB (dormant TB) and thus at risk of developing TB disease,

  (v) 12 out of the 30 countries with the highest number of TB cases are in the Asia Pacific Region, accounting for more than 62% of the world's TB burden, and

  (vi) Papua-New Guinea has one of the highest rates of TB infection in the Pacific, with an estimated 37,000 total cases, including 2,000 drug-resistant cases in 2018;

(b) further notes that:

  (i) drug-resistant forms of TB are a major contributor to deaths from antimicrobial resistance globally, and anti-microbial resistance is a threat to achieving the health-related Sustainable Development Goals,

  (ii) the impact of TB goes beyond death or illness for individuals, and includes effects on economies and communities, health systems, and threats to health security, and

  (iii) committed funding for TB diagnosis and care fell short by US$3.3 billion in 2019;

(c) recognises:

  (i) that the Australian Government has contributed $242 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria for 2020 to 2022,

  (ii) the provision of $75 million over five years for Product Development Partnerships in the Indo-Pacific Health Security initiative,

  (iii) the provision of $13 million to help support global efforts in eradicating tuberculosis in the Pacific region, and

  (iv) that Australia and other countries committed at the UN High-Level Meeting on TB in September 2018 to mobilise sufficient and sustainable financing, with the aim of increasing overall global research and development investments to US$2 billion; and

(d) calls on the Australian Government to:

  (i) develop an action plan to demonstrate progress towards the targets and commitment made at the UN High-Level Meeting on TB, and

  (ii) support the international adoption of the target to spend 0.1 % of its annual Gross Domestic Expenditure on Research and Development on TB research in order to close the global TB R&D funding gap.

Question agreed to.