Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the motion moved by the member for Higgins on World AIDS Day and note that yesterday, 1 December, was World AIDS Day. World AIDS Day is a day when the world turns its attention to those who have been affected by AIDS and HIV, and it is a time to mourn those who have been lost to this insidious disease and to support those currently in the fight of their life battling the disease.

This disease requires our diligence for more than just one day a year. It is a disease that punishes complacency, and we can never take it for granted. To that end, the statistics highlighted by my colleague the member for Higgins, and others, paint a sobering picture of the ravaging destruction of human life that this disease is causing all around the world. There are 35 million people currently living with either AIDS or HIV worldwide. That is 1½ times the population of Australia. Of those 35 million people, 10 per cent are under the age of 15, meaning that 3½ million children under the age of 15 currently suffer from HIV and AIDS.

What alarms me the most is the all-too-prevalent perception among many Australians that this disease is something that is happening somewhere else in the world. The facts prove that any such perception could not be further from the truth. In 2012 there were 25,000 people with HIV in Australia. Although this may be on the lower end of the spectrum when you look at it per capita, there were 1,253 new diagnoses in 2012, a 10 per cent increase on the previous year, and that is a very worrying statistic. In Queensland, 207 people were diagnosed last year and 195 the year before that. This is why the Newman government in Queensland is spending more than $1.1 million on the initial phase of its 'End HIV' campaign, launched yesterday, which aims to be one of the first to adopt a whole-of-population approach. Dr Darren Russell, chair of the Queensland Ministerial Advisory Committee on HIV-AIDS, had this to say about the new campaign:

For the first time, the Queensland trend has crossed the line, meaning that the Queensland rate is higher than the Australian average—that's never happened before.

These alarming numbers require urgent and drastic action, and that is just what the Queensland Minister for Health, Lawrence Springborg, has done. Since coming to office, Minister Springborg has implemented an HIV strategy. So far this year, with sustained high rates of HIV testing, a significant drop in HIV diagnoses has been recorded. There were 183 new notifications in the same period last year, and that figure has dropped to 159. Under Minister Springborg's leadership Queensland became the first state to introduce free rapid HIV testing as part of regular clinical practice, and already more than 500 of these tests have been conducted. That is 500 Queenslanders who know what their HIV status is today, who might otherwise have remained in the dark. The member opposite can interject all he likes, but the results are proving that, with rapid testing in 16 locations in Queensland health clinics and in general practice, we can test and we can find out if somebody has HIV early. I do not know why the member wants to protest about finding out something earlier.

Our understanding of HIV in this state is moving ahead, and the results will benefit all Queenslanders. It is critical that we remain ever-vigilant and that we continue our investment in medical health and research. This disease does not tolerate any lack of respect, and it rewards complacency with death. I want to pay tribute to the great work that is being done at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research by Dr David Harrich. His approach is a new Australian-made approach and one of the most exciting developments in HIV/AIDS research in recent years. The findings have been published in influential peer-reviewed scientific journals, and Dr Harrich and his team have come up with a way to produce an effective protein inhibitor of HIV by mutating an existing HIV protein. I want to congratulate him on the great work that is being done. The work that Dr Harrich is doing will make sure that a person who has HIV would not develop full-blown AIDS. But the work remains vigilant, and I commend the member for Higgins for her motion on this.

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