Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am wearing a red ribbon today to show my support for people living with HIV and to commemorate those who have died, especially those who have helped change public attitudes and made HIV a disease people can live with. The global World AIDS Day theme for this year continues on from last year's theme: 'Getting to Zero: Zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS related deaths'. In order to achieve this, we need a clear plan and strategy. The Seventh National HIV Strategy sets a direction for Australia to reverse the trend of increased HIV diagnoses and to work towards eliminating HIV transmission in this country.

The AIDS 2014 Legacy Statement commits the Australian government and the eight states and territories to taking all necessary action, in partnership with key affected communities and sector partners, to remove barriers to testing, treatment, prevention, care and support across legal, regulatory, policy, social, political and economic domains. In this regard, the coalition has also announced a number of practical measures to support the early testing and treatment of HIV. Restrictions preventing the manufacture and sale of HIV home self-tests were removed and, from 1 July this year, PBS subsidised HIV antiretroviral medicines can be dispensed and accessed through a pharmacy of the patient's choice.

Australia has a strong record of nonpartisan leadership in responding to the HIV epidemic, resulting in one of the lowest prevalence rates in the world. The member for Griffith is no doubt proud that Queensland was the first state in Australia to sign up to a new HIV treatment program which promises to eliminate the transmission of HIV by 2020. The former Newman government last year signed a memorandum of understanding with Canada's British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.

Australia has come a long way since we first heard about HIV and AIDS. The 1980s was a time when we knew so little about HIV and AIDS that, in the absence of scientific knowledge, ignorance, intolerance and fear replaced reason. Who can forget those confronting 1987 grim reaper advertisements? While the grim reaper successfully scared us about the dangers of HIV and AIDS, it also divided and polarised the Australian community. It made the healthy fear the sick and sick-looking. Friends were scared of touching friends. Sick people were traumatised. Australia's gay community were blamed and vilified, sometimes in public acts of aggression and violence. But the public health awareness campaigns did have the desired effect. We have learned a lot since then. Thirty years along that journey and here we are on the eve of World Aids Day 2015, and we are now talking about eliminating new HIV infections within five years in Australia.

Australia is rightly proud of its leadership in the response to HIV and AIDS. We have contributed more than $1 billion to the international HIV response in the past decade. Bilaterally, Australia is supporting HIV-AIDS activities and programs in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. At the global and regional levels, we support UNAIDS so as to ensure global efforts to address the disease capture needs in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as in Africa. However, we cannot be complacent. We must be vigilant in our ongoing action to address the remaining challenges in Australia and our region: weak health systems, stigma and discrimination, laws and policies that inhibit marginalised populations' access to services, and persistent barriers for women and girls to claim their sexual and reproductive health rights.

I acknowledge the significant roles played by people living with HIV, their friends, family, and supporters and activists and researchers—past and present—in making HIV a disease with which people can live. For many Australians and their families, the journey to get to this milestone has been long and painful. Countless men, women and even children have died along the way. Others have suffered long-term incapacity or tenuous health. Today, because of them, we are implementing a plan to virtually eliminate new HIV infections in Australia. I thank the member for Griffith for her motion today.

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