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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 6 Hansard (24 May) . . Page.. 1757 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

The reason I raised these statistics today is, as I said, to acknowledge the fact that last Sunday was an international memorial day to honour the memory of those lost to AIDS, and to show support for people around the world living with HIV and AIDS. I raise it today, most specifically in the Assembly, because of the depressing need to raise awareness within the community of the impact that HIV and AIDS is having in some nations.

Some nations in Africa have infection rates as high as 25 per cent of the population, and it is feared that this is now beginning to be the case in Asia. The AIDS epidemic is, more clearly than ever, not a problem of minorities, but is becoming a threat to all of humankind. I take some of these statements from the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial information bulletin.

The deadliness of this disease is matched by the challenge it presents to the economic survival of entire nations, to the stability of societies and to progress in upholding human rights everywhere. Tens of millions of people living with HIV might have avoided infection if they had been given the facts about transmission and prevention. I think it is very important that we continue to talk about AIDS, that we do seek to raise here in Australia an acknowledgment that other nations around the world are being decimated by this disease.

I think there is a genuine concern that there are those who do have the wherewithal, those who are privileged to live in the wealthier nations of the world, and who do have access to those medicines and drugs that impact so positively on people living with HIV, but that these things are not available to so many people. So many people in some of the nations afflicted so grievously with AIDS don't have available to them any of the drugs, the care or the medical attention required. This is a terrible epidemic that is threatening the survival of some nations. It is something that we need to keep at the forefront of our thinking.

MR CORBELL (10.23): I wanted to raise, in the adjournment debate this evening, the government's increasing tendency, over the past two sitting weeks particularly, to continually frustrate, delay and draw out private members business. Today we have seen deliberate attempts by the government, on repeated occasions, to frustrate the business of this place with propositions put forward by non-executive members. We have seen a motion from Mr Hird that has effectively chewed up considerable amounts of private members business time for what is no more than a motion of self-congratulation by the government.

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