Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in this chamber to support my good friend the member for Leichhardt on his motion to recognise World Tuberculosis Day, to be observed on 24 March, and to commemorate the lives lost from this dreadful disease. TB kills more than 4,000 people every day, among them 700 children. Close to 15 million people have died from TB in the last decade. It remains one of the world's deadliest airborne infectious diseases and the 10th most common cause of death worldwide, but it doesn't have to be. It is both preventable and curable. TB is one of the most common causes of death in many parts of the world, including Sub-Saharan Africa, parts of eastern Europe, South Asia and the Indo-Pacific region. Without an affordable diagnostic test and with the advent of multi-drug-resistant strains, worldwide efforts to curb the prevalence of TB still struggle.

The journal The Lancet Respiratory Medicine published a study in 2018 which contained some chilling predictions. The study found that unless control efforts are stepped up tuberculosis will kill 28 million people between 2015 and 2030 and cost the global economy almost $1 trillion. The investigators based their estimates on a business-as-usual scenario in which progress continues on its present course. They noted that tuberculosis cost the world economy $616 billion from 2000 to 2015 and that economic losses in several countries in Africa and South-East Asia exceeded one per cent of gross domestic product—and we have to put this in context of COVID, where all of the world has pivoted to dealing with that deadly disease. The following 15 years are likely to be even more damaging. India is projected to lose $252 billion, and Lesotho and Mozambique face losing more than three per cent of GDP. The authors predicted that the overall cost of the disease will be $984 billion, almost a third of which will fall on Africa. Add to that the dual health and economic impacts of the recent COVID pandemic, and the negative impact particularly to the developing world is extremely concerning.

While Australia has one of the lowest rates of tuberculosis, unfortunately it is far too common in our Pacific neighbours. We need to show leadership here. According to the World Health Organization, TB kills more people in Papua New Guinea than any other infectious disease. That's quite striking and extremely concerning. Due to the proximity of PNG, we know that this could easily become Australia's next health crisis, and that's why I thank the member for Leichhardt for his wonderful work in this area. He understands that it is particularly relevant to Far North Queensland where we have Indigenous communities more susceptible to TB. Australia's border is only four kilometres from PNG and there is significant travel between our countries in these remote communities—especially prior to COVID and this is expected to resume.

But more than the health security risk of our closest neighbours, we have an international obligation to assist our Pacific neighbours, and I support the Morrison government's Pacific Step-up in this area. We are PNG's biggest partner in response to the rising threat of TB. In pre-COVID times I travelled with the member for Macnamara, who is here in the chamber, to PNG on a parliamentary learning tour with Save the Children, funded by the Gates foundation. While there, we visited clinics that're working to combat multidrug resistant TB and ensure proper screening and early detection. I was able to see firsthand how the assistance the Morrison government is providing to PNG is giving doctors and nurses the tools they need to reduce the recurrence of TB in their communities.

In 2018 Australia committed to the targets agreed upon in the political declaration of the United Nations high-level meeting on TB. In 2020 a UN report found that progress in meeting these targets is currently far too slow to meet the 2022 deadline. This is very concerning. Further, in light of COVID it's possible we're going to lose five to eight years of global progress. More must be done. That is why the Morrison government has announced $1.1 billion of global support, as part of the COVID-19 response and recovery initiative, including a $242 million pledge to the global fund to fight AIDS, TB and malaria, which will contribute to saving millions of lives. This is very important. I know it's a bipartisan supported initiative.

In 2019 the government's $13.3 million pledge of support for antimicrobial resistant and drug-resistant TB research in the Pacific Island countries resulted in the development of a new TB drug therapy that is all oral and avoids having to use multiple injections and thousands of pills. These sorts of initiatives are incredibly important in these developing countries. I commend this motion to the House.

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