Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Thursday, I joined over a thousand people at a memorial service at the Sydney Town Hall celebrating the life and legacy of Professor David Cooper AC. David was an immunologist and a director of the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales. But for many Australians he was a modern-day hero.

David's life was dedicated to preventing, treating and curing HIV and other infectious diseases. After a research fellowship in Boston in the early 1980s, David saw some of the world's first cases of HIV and quickly returned to Australia because he knew that the epidemic would spread here—and it did. With his colleague, Ron Penny, he diagnosed the first case of HIV in Australia in 1982, and quickly established a treatment facility for HIV patients in Australia at St Vincent's Hospital. His groundbreaking research into HIV seroconversion led him to become the president of the International AIDS Society and the chair of the World Health Organization's HIV vaccine advisory committee.

David also did a lot to reduce the stigma and homophobia associated with AIDS. There are countless people living in Australia today and throughout the world who wouldn't be alive if it weren't for David Cooper. That was recognised recently with a posthumous AC in the Queen's Birthday 2018 Honours List. I offer my condolences to his wife, Dorrie, and to his children, Becky and Ilana. May he rest in peace.