Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move the motion relating to World AIDS Day:

That this House:

(1) notes that 1 December 2013 is World AIDS Day;

(2) recognises that:

(a) more than 35 million people now live with HIV/AIDS worldwide, and almost 10 per cent of these are under the age of 15;

(b) every day nearly 6,300 people contract HIV—nearly 262 every hour;

(c) in Australia in 2012 there were 25,000 people living with HIV and 1,253 new diagnoses of HIV infection—a 10 per cent increase from previous years;

(d) in 2012, 1.6 million people died from AIDS—related illnesses;

(e) in some communities HIV rates are as high as 40 per cent;

(f) since the beginning of the epidemic in the 1980s, more than 75 million people have been infected with HIV and nearly 36 million have died of AIDS-related illnesses;

(g) there are now outstanding antiviral treatments available to people living with HIV; and

(h) although a lot of work has been done and many medical advances have been made, there is no cure and no vaccine, so a lot of research and work still needs to be done before we see the end of HIV;

(3) acknowledges that:

(a) in July 2014, Melbourne will host the 20th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2014);

(b) the conference will bring together 14,000 delegates from around 200 countries, which will be the largest medical conference ever held in Australia; and

(c) the conference will be chaired by Nobel Laureate, Professor Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, and Professor Sharon Lewin; and

(4) calls on the Parliament to:

(a) continue Australia's strong commitment to an enduring effective partnership between government, scientists and the community to meet the needs of people living with HIV;

(b) continue Australia's strong commitment to medical health and research; and

(c) foster and cultivate Australia's medical health and research community and researchers to ensure we stay at the forefront of all aspects of treatment, care and research in HIV.

I rise today to speak on a motion of great importance. Yesterday, 1 December 2013, was World AIDS Day. To mark this day, the International AIDS Society brought Nobel Peace Prize winner and UNAIDS Ambassador and UNAIDS Global Advocate for Zero Discrimination, Aung Sung Suu Kyi, to Australia to launch the countdown to the World AIDS Conference to be held in Melbourne in 2014. Yesterday His Excellency The Honourable Alex Chernov AC QC, hosted Aung Sung Suu Kyi at a reception at Government House in Victoria where she spoke about the importance of ending discrimination for those suffering from this disease by challenging ignorance and intolerance. She spoke for all of those in the world who do not have a voice of their own. She implored us to continue the fight against AIDS until it is one day eradicated from the world.

World AIDS Day is a day when the world turns its attention to those who have been affected by AIDS and the HIV virus. Human immunodeficiency virus is a contagious disease that is contracted through the exchange of bodily fluids. Once caught, it will eventually lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS. There is no time frame to this process and it can in some cases take decades. Advances in treatments have meant that people living with HIV can live active lives for many years. However, to date there is still no cure. HIV attacks the immune system and increases the chances of contracting other infectious diseases. Once AIDS has developed, the patient becomes susceptible to various viruses and cancers which will ultimately prove to be terminal.

World AIDS Day is a time to mourn those who have been lost to this insidious disease and to support those currently in the fight of their lives. It is time to think of families, friends and carers whose lives have been changed irrevocably. It is also a moment to recognise the work that has been done so far in the effort to eradicate the disease, as well as to improve the quality of life of sufferers.

We are so fortunate to have in Australia some of the most pre-eminent researchers in this field. Many would be aware of the significant contribution that the Burnet Institute has made to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of AIDS and related diseases, as well as its ongoing search for a cure for AIDS. They have 49 projects currently on foot, many with partners from around the world. These projects cover both research and education in Australia and around the globe, including small molecule inhibitors of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase and HIV clinical training for doctors. I would like to acknowledge the fine work the Burnet Institute carries out for our community, both here and internationally, under the impressive stewardship of Professor Brendan Crabb.

To recognise the importance of the HIV-AIDS challenge it is appropriate to draw the parliament's attention to some very sobering statistics regarding HIV-AIDS from around the world. There are currently 35 million people worldwide living with either AIDS or the HIV virus. That is one and a half times the population of Australia currently suffering from some form of the disease. Of those 35 million people, 10 per cent are under the age of 15, meaning 3½ million children under the age of 15 currently suffer from HIV and AIDS. In 2012 there were 25,000 people living with HIV in Australia. Although this may be on the lower end of the spectrum per capita, there were 1,253 new diagnoses, which is a 10 per cent increase on the previous year. This is a worrying statistic.

The AIDS epidemic was first recognised in the 1980s and since then more than 75 million people have been infected with HIV and nearly 36 million people have died of AIDS related illnesses. Globally, nearly 6,300 people contract HIV every day, or 262 every hour. In 2012, 1.6 million people died from AIDS related illnesses and in some communities HIV rates are as high as 40 per cent. Like most infectious diseases and healthcare issues, HIV and AIDS are most prevalent in Third World countries. They are especially prevalent in western and central African countries, where education and knowledge on the topic is relatively poor and where regard for women's human rights is low. This in turn leads to some concerning practices in those communities. This further highlights the need to educate people so as to prevent the spread of the disease and decrease the rate of infection.

Of course, HIV and AIDS are not limited to poorer communities and are not limited to Africa; indeed, they are big issues within our own neighbourhood and outside of Australia. There is also though a higher risk among those in the community who do not practise safe sex and drug users who share needles. What is concerning, as I previously mentioned, is that in the last year there was a 10 per cent increase in the number of diagnoses in Australia than in the previous year. This still tells us that there is a lot we need to do in terms of education in Australia around safe sex practices in particular.

Our vigilance must be matched by our continued investment in health and medical research. The coalition have a strong record when it comes to investing in research. Recently the coalition announced $559 million to fund 963 NHMRC grants in the first round of funding. We have also quarantined health and medical research funding from any future cuts and have committed to reducing red tape for researchers and medical practitioners, especially with respect to clinical trials.

Another important initiative in the fight against HIV and AIDS is the world AIDS conference. As previously mentioned, the world AIDS conference will be held in Melbourne in July 2014. This is an opportunity for over 14,000 participants from around 200 countries to meet and collaborate on future endeavours to eradicate this disease once and for all. The conference is organised by the International AIDS Society, which is the world's leading independent association of HIV professionals, with over 16,000 members from more than 177 countries working at all levels of the global response to AIDS. IAS members include researchers from all disciplines, clinicians, public health and community practitioners on the front line of the epidemic as well as policy and program planners.

The conference is one of the largest medical conferences in the world. In my capacity as co-founder of the Parliamentary Friends of Women in Science, Maths and Engineering, I want to particularly highlight that the co-chairs of the conference are two of the most pre-eminent female scientists in the world: French Nobel Laureate Professor Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and our very own Professor Sharon Lewin.

Professor Barre-Sinoussi won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2008. She was awarded the prize for her work in discovering HIV and her continued research, which she began in 1983. After a long and incredibly distinguished career, Professor Barre-Sinoussi will be travelling to Melbourne to co-chair the conference with Professor Sharon Lewin.

Professor Lewin is the head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Monash University and the Alfred Hospital, and co-head of the Centre for Biomedical Research at the Burnet Institute. She is one of Australia's most esteemed scientists, and I am incredibly proud to say she is also a Higgins resident.

I would like to personally congratulate these two exceptional women and all of the events coordinators for putting together what I am sure will be an incredibly professional and valuable conference. I take this opportunity to congratulate the Victorian government—the Premier, Denis Napthine, and the health minister, David Davis—for their foresight in making sure that this conference could be held in Australia and held in Melbourne.

We have come a very long way on the journey to end discrimination and to find a cure for HIV and AIDS. But there is still a very long way to go. Together, I am very confident, we will get there.

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I take great pleasure in rising to support the motion of the member for Higgins. It is a motion that is particularly important at this time of the year. Yesterday was World AIDS Day, and every year this parliament needs to remember World AIDS Day and to talk about the significance of that day and make a pledge to work towards coming up with a cure for, or some form of vaccine against, AIDS.

Here are a few facts. HIV continues to be a major global public health issue, and it has claimed the lives of 36 million people worldwide. That is a phenomenal number of people that have succumbed to AIDS. Approximately 35.3 million people were living with AIDS in 2012, and I am sure most members would know people within their own electorates who are living with AIDS.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected region, with nearly one in every 20 adults living with HIV—69 per cent of all people living with HIV are in this region. In 2008 I visited South Africa, and when I was there I met with a woman with a young family who was living with AIDS. She told us about how she had gone to the brink: of how she had nearly died. She had been in a facility, and was put in a little room—just put there to die. She was stigmatised by everybody who lived in her township. It was only because she received some care and some drugs that she was given back her life. She had a young child. This young child had the vision of playing soccer for South Africa, and his chances of being able to achieve that were much greater when he had his mother there to support him.

I also met with a young family who had lost their mother and their father to AIDS. They had a memory box, and in it were the only mementos they had of their parents. The family had the support of the township they lived in, but the eldest child was actually looking after the family and keeping it together. It is only by visiting a place like that that you can understand the magnitude of the impact that AIDS has had on real people's lives. We read about it, we hear about it, but when you are in that environment you see the stigmatisation that is directed towards those people that are living with AIDS, you see the challenges they face each and every day, you see the enormity of the loss of lives and you can really understand how it has impacted on those communities.

As we all know, AIDS has now been around since the early eighties. In Australia I think we probably had one of the best campaigns at the time with the Grim Reaper campaign. That was put in place as a shock tactic to raise awareness within the community of the dangers of HIV and the way it was contacted, It was trying to stop those risky behaviours that would then lead to a reduction in the number of cases of HIV.

By December last year there had been 34,029 cases of HIV diagnosed in Australia since 1982 and more than 25,700 people living with HIV in Australia. The majority of these are men. Paul O'Grady, who was a member of the Legislative Council in New South Wales, was one of the first people diagnosed with HIV back in the early eighties. He became terribly ill in the mid to late 1990s and resigned from the Legislative Council. Then he started using the retroviral drugs and that has enabled him to live a longer life and enjoy a good quality of life. There are times when he is more unwell than others.

It has impacted on many people and has impacted on many families. It has actually impacted on my own family. My sister-in-law and her husband both died from AIDS back in the early 1990s. The husband contracted AIDS and then transferred it to my sister-in-law. He was diagnosed very late at the time when HIV was becoming more widely diagnosed. He died fairly quickly. My sister-in-law was diagnosed after his death. Luckily, their four children were free of the virus. She died after a struggle of a couple of years. During that time she felt terribly stigmatised by the fact that she had AIDS. She was embarrassed about it. I read some of the things she wrote about going to the dentist and the way that she was treated on those occasions.

I think our society has moved on since that time but there is still stigma associated with HIV. So World AIDS Day is a time that is very important to me and I always think of my sister-in-law at that time. What I would like to emphasise is the fact that I am very worried that the number of people being diagnosed with HIV has increased in recent times. Even though we have had those campaigns, even though people understand how HIV is contracted, here in Australia there were 1,200 new cases in 2012—which is a 20 per cent increase. The biggest increase has been among gay men under the age of 25. These are young men who were not exposed to the campaign back in the eighties. These are young men who do not understand the significance of it, and complacency has developed around it. I think that we need to get out there in our own electorates and through the arms of government, raise awareness and start getting the message out there again how HIV is contracted and look at ways to address this issue.

There have been some really positive signs in recent times about some of the research that is taking place, and hopefully that will lead to a vaccination or a cure. I think this is a really important time. The conference that is going to be held in Melbourne next year will be a time when a lot of the new treatments and new approaches will be explored. I congratulate the member for bringing this to the parliament and I encourage all members to realise just how significant this motion is. Thank you.

Louise Markus (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in recognition of World AIDS Day 2013, which took place on 1 December. It is a sad but harsh reality that, in the world today, 35 million people are living with AIDS. What makes this statistic even more harrowing is that 10 per cent of those people are under the age of 15. While HIV is no longer regarded as a death sentence and in many cases is a manageable illness, particularly with access to medication and treatment and if people have the opportunity to have a healthy lifestyle, the access to that treatment and healthy lifestyle that we sometimes take for granted is not available to many of those 35 million people.

We have moved a long way since the 1980s. I had the privilege in the early eighties, if I may mention it briefly, of working with a young woman who was diagnosed with HIV following a blood transfusion. It is no longer the case that HIV is transmitted that way, but I walked the journey with her until she passed away in the mid-nineties. I watched her and her family and was able to provide them with support. Back then they were treated with disdain. I remember there was a lot of secrecy and discrimination and misunderstanding about how it was transmitted. We have moved a long way.

My family also have close connections in particular with our nearest neighbour, PNG. It is on that nation that I want to focus and make some comments about today. On my frequent visits I have seen firsthand the devastation that AIDS causes not only to individuals but to families and in fact whole clans. Several years ago there were predictions that as many as one in 20 of PNG's population of seven million could become infected with HIV, amid signs that the disease was spreading unchecked across parts of the Highlands region. Now the epidemic is being contained. Most of those infected are receiving lifesaving treatment and health workers are optimistic that this can be reduced to another manageable public health challenge.

While the spread of the virus is being checked, its management still poses a formidable public health challenge. Almost 12,000 adults and children were undergoing treatment last year, compared with about 9,500 in 2011. The national infection rate is estimated to have stabilised at about 0.83 per cent of the population, with higher rates in some Highlands provinces and Port Moresby's national capital district.

One of the greatest concerns in particular is highly vulnerable women in PNG. There are a growing number of women who are driven to sell sex casually to survive, particularly single women with no support or married women who have been abandoned. This is of great concern. But there has been some success, particularly achieved in the management of HIV among mothers and children. With better treatment and better education programs the incidence of mother-to-child transmission has been greatly reduced in PNG, with about 400 children having received treatment. Part of Australia's annual aid budget of $500 million to PNG is supporting local government efforts to provide antiretroviral treatment, with 80 per cent of eligible adults expected to be receiving the drugs by 2015. But there is much more work to be done.

There is also a challenge in our own nation. In Australia there are an estimated 25,000 people with HIV. A total of 1,253 cases of HIV infection were newly diagnosed in 2012, a 10 per cent increase on 2011. The annual number of new HIV diagnoses has gradually increased over the past 13 years, from 724 diagnoses in 1999. In New South Wales there has been a surge in HIV cases—up 24 per cent between 2011 and 2012. We need to ensure that people who live with HIV-AIDS can participate fully in the life of the community, free from stigma and discrimination. Two reports in 2012 revealed that more than half of the people with HIV have had their status disclosed without their permission. It is often the case that friends or even colleagues reveal someone's HIV status without that person's knowledge. Every human deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. We have an opportunity to reach out to those who are living with HIV and celebrate them for who they are and the contribution they make to our society. Today, along with a number of my colleagues, I support this motion.

Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak on this subject and I thank the member for Higgins for this motion. I can recall a time—it seems not so long ago—when the threat and fear of AIDS gripped this nation. It was a great unknown terror. Nobody knew what it was or what it meant other than certain death. It was an epidemic. In Melbourne, where I was living, it seemed that almost every person my age, including me, had lost a friend or loved one to this disease. The result of this fear, this trauma, this lived experience was that people became informed, they became vigilant and they protected themselves. In the eighties my sister, who was then a scientist and is now a winemaker, worked in AIDS research—really, in the very early days of it. I can remember talking to my sister about her work. She went from being totally in the dark about this disease to knowing more and understanding more so that, ultimately, we would be able to control it.

Today the story of AIDS is a totally different one. Most importantly, a diagnosis of HIV is no longer the death sentence that it once was. Thanks to the incredible work of scientists, researchers and medical professionals like my sister, HIV-AIDS can now be not only prevented but treated. HIV is now a manageable infection, no longer a gradual progression to AIDS and then death. Treatments not only control the virus but also reduce infectiousness.

The progress that has been made in tackling this disease in what seems like a relatively short couple of decades is nothing short of remarkable. However, there seems to have been an unintended flipside to this progress. As treatment has progressed, fear has subsided—and so too, it would seem, has our vigilance. I was alarmed to read last week that there has been a 10 per cent increase in reported HIV cases in Australia during the last year. Associate Professor Paul Sendziuk, an expert on the history of HIV-AIDS from the University of Adelaide, points to the introduction of meet-up apps on phones, which make it easier for people to have casual sex with strangers, and the rise in the use of recreational drugs, which get people into euphoric states and lower their inhibitions, as two possible factors in the increase. He calls social media 'a double edged sword'. He says that, on the plus side, social media is being used by HIV educators in really innovative ways to reach people who might not otherwise get messages about AIDS. However, it also presents a real challenge in that it allows people to hook up for anonymous sex more easily. HIV might be the unintended consequence of the new ways Australia's young people are socialising. The trend in the use of steroids has also seen a new generation of Australians injecting drugs, which may also have resulted in this increase in HIV.

Yesterday was the 26th annual World AIDS Day. The global theme this year is 'Getting to Zero'—zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS related deaths. The elimination of HIV is something that the UN Secretary-General's special envoy for AIDS believes is achievable in the Asia-Pacific region within the next 15 years. However, it will only be achieved if we are vigilant, if we avoid complacency. And I believe it is the responsibility of those of us who lived through the birth of the HIV-AIDS epidemic in this country to keep the younger generations informed: always practise safe sex; do not share syringes or other personal items such as razors; and get tested regularly.

HIV can affect anyone. There is no vaccine or cure for HIV or AIDS. By being informed about how HIV is transmitted and how to protect ourselves and others, we can enjoy life with safer sex and prevent the spread of HIV—an important and timely message this World AIDS Day. We must also be forever vigilant, which is why the Abbott government's decision to de-fund the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council is so alarming. From 2002 to 2006, ADCA's president was Neal Blewett, who played an active, pivotal role in combating AIDS. As a result, ADCA was at the forefront of improving Australia's understanding of blood-borne diseases and the role of safe injection, and it played a critical role in bringing together a cohesive cross-sectoral approach to the issue. So, in commending the member for Higgins for the motion, I also ask her to advocate for the reinstatement of funding for ADCA so it can continue to do great work on preventing HIV-AIDS in Australia.

Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the motion of the member for Higgins on World AIDS Day and commend the member for Higgins for this initiative. I always remember 1 December because it would have been my mum's birthday—it would have been her 81st birthday, so, happy birthday, Mum.

This globally recognised event raises awareness all across the world about the challenges associated with HIV-AIDS. I picked up some interesting facts from the speech by the member for Canberra, and I was waiting for the member for Brisbane to make a comment on the closing down of Biala in her electorate, but she failed to mention it in her five-minute speech. But I will come to that in a minute. Obviously we need to recognise that Australia, sadly, has seen an increase in HIV infection rates of more than eight per cent in 2011. It was interesting to hear the suggestion of the member for Canberra that it can be linked to those phone apps, because it did seem to defy all other logic. And obviously the opportunities that are there so readily are both a blessing and a curse. Perhaps linked also to that is the fact that there has been a 50 per cent rise in sexually transmitted diseases over the past 10 years, and perhaps with that information the member for Canberra gave there will be a further spike.

We need to look at ways to promote safe sex practices, especially in our young people, to reduce the transmission of HIV and other diseases. We need to look at endorsing education programs and information campaigns. And I can say, as someone with an eight-year-old son, having a conversation recently with a doctor who said, 'This is when you should be talking about having vaccinations,' scared the bejesus out of me. I thought an eight-year-old would be thinking about Lego and things like that. So, to all of a sudden hear that now is when we should be thinking about having that conversation and with young girls reaching puberty so much earlier than when I was at school, is scary. It is scary to think that someone's body can be so out of sync with their mental development.

So, we need to do what we can to ensure that people living with HIV and AIDS in our community can live their lives without fear of discrimination or exclusion. The days of the eighties are, hopefully, long behind us. And again, we need to invest in programs such as youth education that will break this cycle. One of the scary things mentioned in the motion by the member for Higgins is that there are 25,000 people living with HIV and 1,253 new diagnoses. That 10 per cent increase is the scariest thing.

Sadly, last year in Queensland we saw the Newman government make a harsh decision to dramatically slash services at Brisbane's only free sexual health clinic, Biala, located in the electorate of Brisbane This service had trained specialist nurses and doctors. There was a suggestion put forward by the health minister, Mr Springborg, that people would be able to go to their local GP. The whole point of an anonymous clinic like Biala was that men—or females for that matter—who sleep with men and men who are cheating on their wives cannot just go to their GP and have a conversation about the things that they are doing. This state government decision—this horrible decision—to cut 30 jobs at the clinic and refer STI treatment and diagnostic services to GPs was completely wrong. It was very short-sighted and dangerous—and just plain wrong.

Obviously, the government, at the state level and the federal level, needs to consider the long-term implications of closing these anonymous sexual health services. GPs need to be specially trained not only in terms of counselling but also in terms of the conversations that need to go with such things. The reality is that there are people in relationships, men particularly, who then have sex with men even though they ostensibly have children and have a normal heterosexual relationship. They still go off to beats. They still use the phone apps that the member for Canberra touched on which allow them to hook up with people and have anonymous sex. That means that the opportunities for having protected sex may not be as high as they are, especially if we go back to the bad old days when people started removing condom machines from health services. That was something that they used to do in the Joh Bjelke-Petersen days. Hopefully, we are a long way away from those sorts of behaviours.

I urge the health minister, Mr Springborg, to reverse this decision, because we need these services. I commend him for the response that was touched on by the member for Brisbane, but we need to go back to anonymous clinics like Biala. Otherwise, as Dr van Lieshout warned, there will be an increase in syphilis, gonorrhoea and all those things, particularly coming through fly-in fly-out workers, tourists and travellers. (Time expired)