Page 3203 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 18 November 1992
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MR BERRY: I just cannot pass up the opportunity. I can explain why you will not win.
Mrs Carnell: Because he will not vote with us.
MR BERRY: Because he is very sensible.
Mr Humphries: You did not say that yesterday. It is a change of tune from yesterday.
Mr Moore: No; that was a different matter.
MR BERRY: If he is not being sensible, I will tell him. When he is being sensible, I will tell him. He is being very sensible on this issue and the Liberals are not being very sensible, particularly with the hyperbole that has been created by the attempts by - - -
Mr Humphries: You mean the exposure.
MR BERRY: The attempts by the Liberals to go backwards, to advance Australia backwards. It is a great old yarn, but it is one that is quite appropriate to the Liberals. There is an Intergovernmental Committee on AIDS, and a legal working party which has looked at this issue. It recently issued a report which is open to everybody who is interested in an up-to-date position in relation to AIDS. I would recommend that Mrs Carnell and the Liberals get a copy of that and have a read. They will probably agree with Mr Moore, because it clearly points out that non-identifiable and confirmed false positive results are excluded. Only coded data should be required to be notified in State and Territory public health legislation. That is the position adopted by all States and Territories and agreed to, Liberal ones included. There are not too many bureaucrats who go to the legal working party of the Intergovernmental Committee on AIDS who would put a position which was inconsistent with their particular governments, I suggest.
We have done a bit of a check around the States that we were able to contact at short notice. In New South Wales - this is not bad - all stages of HIV infection are notifiable in coded form only. That must be one of the more advanced Liberals - - -
Mr Moore: They are not quite as conservative as the Liberals here.
MR BERRY: No; although there is a bit of a wet resurgence. Did you notice that this morning? There was a gritting of the teeth amongst four of them. In fact, this morning was the only time I could see a ballot where two won and four lost; but the wets are in the ascendancy, I see. In the Northern Territory all stages of HIV are notifiable in coded form. In Queensland all stages of HIV infection are notified in coded form. In South Australia all stages of HIV infection are required to be notified by name and address, but in practice coded information is accepted. So, not all States are the same; but it is interesting that the one that we are surrounded by, New South Wales, is. The Liberals really need to come up to speed and forget the silly politics and beat-ups that are going on about this important issue, because what it does, in effect, is increase the danger to the community from the spread of AIDS. You have to wake up to yourselves.
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