Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I remind the minister of the challenges caused by HIV, tuberculosis and malaria to the people of Papua New Guinea and the risks of these diseases spreading into Australia. Can the minister inform the House of the government's plans to support the elimination of these diseases?

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Leichhardt for his passionate advocacy for those living in his electorate, across Australia and in our region, particularly PNG, who are suffering from these debilitating diseases. The Australian government joins with successive governments in investing heavily in the care, prevention and cure of these debilitating diseases. Over a decade, in relation to HIV-AIDS alone, Australian governments have invested about $1 billion in our region. In relation to malaria, the Prime Minister recently led the way in establishing the Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance to continue to battle these diseases. Indeed, overnight the Australian Ambassador to the United States, the Hon. Kim Beazley, gave the Australian government's pledge of $200 million over three years to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Two-hundred million dollars is precisely the same amount that the Labor government delivered in the last three years. One would have thought, given the deterioration in the budget over the last three years—the fact that five record budget deficits were delivered by this opposition when in government, the fact that the debt is now skyrocketing past $400 billion—that we would have heard bipartisan support for this significant pledge over three years of $200 million. It is precisely the same amount that Labor delivered.

But no. The now absent Deputy Leader of the Opposition went on the attack and tried to turn our three-year pledge into a political pointscoring exercise. Her mischief knows no bounds. Not only has she been kicked out of the House but what she did not say to the Australian people is that Labor broke their pledge to the global fund. In fact, in 2010 Labor pledged $210 million over three years to fight these diseases and then a couple of years later, when they thought the global fund was not watching, they ripped $10 million out of the global fund commitment. It is not only the Australian people who cannot trust Labor; the global fund and the international community cannot trust Labor.

But it gets worse. At the last election, when Labor left office, not one dollar, no money at all, was allocated in the aid budget forward estimates. They left office without a dollar in the aid budget forward estimates. That is such hypocrisy. It is about time the Labor Party took responsibility for the mess in which they have left our economy.