Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—On behalf of the member for Newcastle, I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) three diseases—HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria—still account for the deaths of more than 2.7 million people each year;

(b) since 2000, increased action by national governments and international donors on prevention and detection of and treatment for these diseases has led to significant reductions in cases of and deaths from each disease;

(c) the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) has played a significant role in this progress, and has supported programs with the following outcomes:

  (i) increasing the number of people with HIV with access to antiretroviral therapy to 8.1 million;

  (ii) making available testing and treatment for tuberculosis to 13.2 million people; and

  (iii) supporting the distribution of 548 million insecticide treated bed nets to prevent malaria; and

(d) the Global Fund contributes more than $US4 billion to combat the three diseases each year, and accounts for more than 20 per cent of international funding for HIV, half of international funding for malaria and three quarters of funding for tuberculosis;

(2) recognises:

(a) the proposed Sustainable Development Goals include a target to end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria by 2030;

(b) achieving this target will require increased investment by national governments, national aid agencies and multilateral agencies such as the Global Fund; and

(c) increased investment in addressing these diseases now will reduce the risk of much greater costs, especially from drug resistance, in the future; and

(3) calls on the Government to continue and consider increasing its support for the Global Fund for the next replenishment period, 2017 to 2019.

I thank the member for Newcastle for putting this particular motion on the agenda paper today. HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria still kill more than 2.7 million people each year throughout the world. These are in many respects preventable diseases, and most Australians would probably believe that, particularly in respect of tuberculosis and malaria, these were diseases that were eradicated a long time ago. It is not the case, particularly in our region, throughout the world where, in places like Papua New Guinea and other Pacific Island nations, tuberculosis is a very big problem and a growing problem.

The Global Fund and other organisations that are working internationally to prevent and combat the spread of these diseases have demonstrated that a very small investment can make a very big difference. For instance, an investment of between $5 to $7 for a treated mosquito net can make all the difference in preventing malaria in regions throughout the world.

Organisations that work to pool resources and expertise in this area have made a big difference. One of those is, of course, the Global Fund. The Global Fund is a partnership that brings together finance, technical expertise, knowledge of communities who live with these diseases, innovation, and importantly scale—economies of scale—to ensure that investment is needed at a reasonable price.

The Global Fund was established in 2012 and, since that time, it has made a very big difference in the area of HIV, TB and malaria. Seventeen million lives have been saved, and they are on track to reach 22 million lives by the end of 2016. There has been a decline of one third in the number of people dying from HIV, TB and malaria since 2012 in countries where The Global Fund invests. There are 8.1 million people on antiretroviral treatment for HIV, 13.2 million people have received TB treatment and 548 million mosquito nets have been distributed through programs for malaria.

So there is the evidence that The Global Fund and the work that it does makes a big difference in preventable diseases such as HIV, TB and malaria. We all know that there is more to do. That is why the particular issue of preventable disease has been recognised through the Sustainable Development Goals process. It is Sustainable Development Goal 3.3: by 2030 the world will aim to end 'the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases'. This is the commitment the world has made. How we are going to do that is going to take a concerted effort from organisations such as The Global Fund and the partners involved, and Australia is one of those partners. I was proud that Labor, when in government, delivered the largest contribution of an Australian government to The Global Fund—$100 million in 2013. Thankfully, the coalition continued that commitment over the years 2014 to 2016. However, the replenishment period is coming up again next year. There are many who work in this area and, indeed, in the opposition, who are concerned that the government will cut back Australia's commitment to the important work of The Global Fund. We have all seen the $11.6 billion that has been cut from the overseas aid budget by this government. Today, and into the future, we call on the Australian government to make a solid commitment to The Global Fund to continue to fight HIV-AIDS, TB and malaria, particularly in our region.

As I finish, I would like to highlight some statistics about the problem, particularly of TB in our area. Papua New Guinea has the highest rate of TB infection in the Pacific, with an estimated 39,000 total cases and 25,000 new infections each year. Last year, one million Indonesians caught TB, along with 130,000 in Vietnam and 120,000 in Thailand. The World Health Organization says that TB kills 1.5 million people worldwide. That is more than AIDS. Those figures demonstrate the significance of this problem within our region. As I said, many Australians believe that we have eradicated TB, but that is not the case. Some of those infections travel across borders to Australia, so this government needs to make a solid commitment to the TB fund replenishment that is coming up next year.

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