Page 3502 - Week 13 - Thursday, 26 November 1992
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The debate here as far as the Liberals are concerned seems to be about a priority, and they have their priorities back to front.
Mr De Domenico: Yes, because people are dying.
MR MOORE: Mr De Domenico says, "People are dying". They seem to misunderstand the point. The best way to illustrate it, I think, is to use Mr Humphries's example about the man who refused to notify his wife. My question at that stage, which he was unable to answer, was, "Why?". It is the critical question. The reason it is the critical question probably arises out of embarrassment. It probably comes out of the fact that he does not want to - - -
Mr De Domenico: Would you rather be embarrassed or dead?
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
MR MOORE: If you listen, you just might learn something; if you listen, you just might learn something about the balance on it. Madam Speaker, it is always flabbergasting to notice just how closed the minds of the conservative section of the Liberal Party, which is the bulk of it, can become. Madam Speaker, here is the point. What happens to the person who is too embarrassed to tell his wife and - as they correctly point out - is prepared, possibly, and most likely, to deliver a death sentence? Probably he is a bisexual man, if we are going to use the example that Mrs Carnell quoted from the research that was reported in the Australian. He is going to say, "Well, why would I notify in the first place?". That is the concern, "Why would I notify in the first place?".
Mr Humphries: Because he is sick.
MR MOORE: Mr Humphries says, "Because I am sick". He knows that he is sick. He knows that nobody is going to be able to do anything about it anyway. Once you are HIV positive, under current medical research, you are HIV positive, and there is nothing you can do about it to reverse that. You can go through a series of actions to protect your health, to give you a longer lifespan and a longer period prior to full-blown AIDS. People can do that. That is why, as priority one, the legal working party of the Intergovernmental Committee on AIDS recommends, first, that a coded form of notification be put into place.
Mr Humphries: Where does it say "priority one"?
MR MOORE: That is why they have put this first, and that is why I am going to support the Government position on this. What the Liberals would like to do, as they always like to do, is just make it black and white. It is always black and white. Just notify it; that is it; go and have a test; that is it; no worries; everything will be all right. The trouble is that it is not that easy. There is a difference of opinion in the community on it and, when you draw the balance, you have to come down, first and foremost, on a coded form of notification; and this regulation is to establish a coded form of notification.
The Liberals do not seem to be able to understand that that does not exclude the possibility of doing something else as well. They can do something else if they like. They can draw up legislation. I am prepared to teach them how to do it if they want me to. Or they can approach the Minister and they can say,
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