Page 3498 - Week 13 - Thursday, 26 November 1992
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Mrs Carnell: It is in the annual report. The report says "voluntary".
MR HUMPHRIES: Indeed, the annual report of the Department of Health clearly says that notification of AIDS is voluntary.
Mr Berry: That is how it was collected.
MR HUMPHRIES: That is not the case. It is not voluntary, and it was not voluntary before the passage of this regulation. Under the law of the Territory, notification was compulsory.
Mr Kaine: Mr Connolly ought to be concerned about that, if you are not.
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Connolly knows that, and I think you know that, too, do you not?
Mr Berry: Take it off to court.
MR HUMPHRIES: It went to court, as a matter of fact. It is funny that you mentioned that. It went to court, and a particular doctor in the Territory made that very claim. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal upheld that claim. I will not go into any more of that, but you know what the circumstances of that were, Mr Berry.
Mr Berry: My word I do.
MR HUMPHRIES: You and your people in your circle of advisers who felt that there ought to be some change in the law, and hoped to make that change in the law by government fiat rather than by actually changing the letter of the law, got caught out.
Mr Berry: No; I am sick of you people driving HIV sufferers underground, and something had to be done to clarify the issues.
MR HUMPHRIES: I see; so, you are prepared to change the law without telling the Assembly about it until you went too far. Is that the situation? Okay, we know where we stand now.
Mr Berry: No; to do something to clarify it and to stop you people - - -
MR HUMPHRIES: You told the Assembly clearly, in August of this year, that HIV/AIDS was not notifiable in compulsory form. The Estimates Committee was clearly told that it was, and the fact of life is that the latter advice was the correct advice.
Let us come to the real meat of today's issue, Madam Speaker, the question of voluntary notification of AIDS at the present time pursuant to these regulations. Madam Speaker, there are two important issues that have to be considered here, two vital issues; literally matters of life and death in respect of this matter. One is the need, as a matter of public policy, to encourage people infected with HIV/AIDS to come forward and receive treatment. That is an essential element of any decent public policy on this area. The second is the importance of preventing the spread of the disease, the spread of AIDS, through transmission, whether it is conscious or inadvertent transmission. They are two vital objectives which any government has to try to balance responsibly in this debate - - -
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