Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

(1) notes that:

  (a) Tuesday, 1 December 2020 is World AIDS Day, an annual day to acknowledge those we have lost to AIDS related conditions and those who are living with HIV;

  (b) the theme for World AIDS Day 2020 is ‘Now More Than Ever’;

  (c) the stigma associated with HIV acts as a barrier to treatment and prevention;

  (d) action is needed to address rising HIV transmission among First Nations, trans and gender diverse people, and other emerging high-risk population groups;

  (e) gay and bisexual men continue to bear the burden of Australia’s HIV epidemic and ongoing health education and awareness among this population group is needed; and

  (f) further bipartisan political action and leadership is required to meet our national target of ending HIV transmission in Australia; and

(2) recognises and acknowledges the:

  (a) journey that people have made through their diagnosis, treatment and experiences of living with HIV;

  (b) tremendous efforts of peer educators, healthcare professionals, researchers and scientists in developing treatment and prevention regimes that have improved the lives of people living with HIV and prevented a generalised epidemic in Australia;

  (c) success of a bipartisan approach in Australia’s health response; and

  (d) tireless community advocates, civil society organisations and support groups that actively tackle stigma associated with HIV.

Every year on 1 December we celebrate and recognise World AIDS Day, which is obviously a day that we would all rather not have to celebrate and recognise, but it's an opportunity to recognise those people all around the world who have HIV and to raise awareness about the challenges facing those with HIV and AIDS—in the past, today and in the future. World AIDS Day is a day for people to show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died.

This year we celebrate World AIDS Day under the banner of Now More Than Ever because it's an opportunity to end the stigma, support treatment and get to zero transmissions. Unlike other countries, Australia has a very proud record. We have had a bipartisan spirit to combatting the spread of HIV from the outset, and the outcomes are very clear. At the end of 2018 Australia had an estimated 28,180 people living with HIV infection, representing 0.14 per cent prevalence overall as a proportion of Australians living with HIV. Of course, we have continued to roll out important and critical programs since the very onset of HIV in the 1980s to stop transmission, whether it's needle exchanges, access to vital or critical medicines and, more recently, medicines that enable people to engage in safe sexual practices. There were 833 HIV notifications in Australia in 2018, the lowest number of notifications since 2001, with a 23 per cent decline over the last five years and a 13 per cent decline between 2017 and 2018. Of those, an estimated 90 per cent were diagnosed. And, of those, 96 per cent were retained in care and 89 per cent were receiving antiretroviral therapy. And, of those receiving antiretroviral therapy, 95 per cent had a suppressed viral load, a clear reminder that one of the biggest and most important things to reduce the risk of transmission is to know your status.

Australia's HIV epidemic continues to be predominately in men who have sex with men, and recent declines in HIV notifications have been attributed to fewer new diagnoses in this critical group. But they are not alone, of course. Among those who inject drugs, there has been a very low prevalence of HIV as a result of a highly successful harm reduction strategy for many years now. There remain some challenges, particularly in the context of making sure there isn't transmission among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and among foreign students living in Australia, who may not have access to all medications.

This Morrison government has made it a continuing priority to make sure that there is proper resourcing available for the many community organisations and health groups to continue to fight transmission. On World AIDS Day 2019, additional ongoing support of $2.9 million in 2020-21 was provided to support the national peak organisation to assist priority populations and healthcare professionals in response to bloodborne viruses and STIs.

The National HIV Strategy notes that access to HIV treatments for Medicare-ineligible people is an important action to reach priority populations and reduce transmissions every day. That's why, under this Minister for Health, we have continued to list new medications and provide more access and treatment options for Australians to reduce the risk of transmission to others and to themselves. The National HIV Strategy provides a framework for the Commonwealth and the state and territory governments, coordinated with a national response, to address HIV in Australia. And we can get to an Australia that has virtually eliminated HIV, but we can't do so in isolation as a government; we can do it with the work of so many community organisations, led by groups like the National Association of People with HIV, and the Federation of AIDS Organisations. All of these community groups, supported by, importantly, healthcare workers, provide assistance and support to those in need and make sure that we can reduce the risk and achieve virtually zero transmission.

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