not too much

The AIDS Action Council of the ACT is community based local Canberra organisation working with AIDS councils throughout Australia. It undertakes community education and awareness to prevent further HIV transmissions and provide support and services to people living with HIV/AIDS. In the Council's latest Annual Report, its President, Joey Tabone, has some sobering word's of warning about the damage being done to Australia's HIV prevention and treatment programs by the recently re-elected conservative government.

At a national level, Australia should be proud of its early response to HIV through the 1980s and 1990s. However, it is clear that in the last few years Australia has less reason to be proud. The recent increase in HIV infections in four of Australia's capital cities is a sober reminder of the reality of the Australian epidemic.
Latest statistics from the Australian HIV Surveillance Report produced by the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research is a startling indication that HIV is actually on the increase in our country.
. . . Although there are so many taking up the fight against HIV/AIDS in our community, our leaders at the federal level have proven once again to be letting us down.
More than 20 years into the epidemic and Australians are faced with a national government prepared to stand by while HIV infections escalate.
The Liberal-Coalition Government has stifled years of work through a complete disregard for our world leading and proven partnership approach.
As we reach the end of 2004, the Federal government has failed to deliver a 5th National HIV/ AIDS Strategy. This strategy is now delayed by over a year. And this delay comes at a time when increasing rates of HIV infection . . . have emerged.
Bureaucratic restructures, political ineptness and policy voids have dominated the HIV/AIDS situation in the last few years. In place of leadership, we have a breakdown in communication, lots of smoke and mirrors, and plenty of silence.
. . . It has now been three years since the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on HIV/AIDS, and still many of the member states have made little progress in meeting their basic AIDS prevention and care goals established at that historic meeting.
. . . Dr Darren Russell, President of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations summed up the situation in a recent address to the Australasian Society for HIV Medicine Conference held here in Canberra. Dr Russell noted that "it seems strangely incongruent that [Australia] is thought of so highly in the countries of our region for our expertise in needle and syringe programs, methadone and buprenorphine substitution programs, and relatively enlightened responses to commercial sex workers, when at home our advances in [all of] these areas are under threat by neglect and lack of political leadership."
Now, more than ever before, Australia needs to be determined and pragmatic in its approach to HIV/ AIDS. Now, more than ever before, Australians need to work together to find solutions through evidence based approaches to care, support and treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS. Australians need to work in partnership to prevent further transmissions and to reverse the current upward trend in HIV infections. The response to HIV/AIDS in Australia must involve all levels of government, the scientific and medical community and the peer based organisations in every state and territory. It is only through these peer based organisations that the voice of those most affected by HIV/AIDS can be heard.
Evidence from around the world dictates that an effective response to the HIV epidemic is only achievable through a strong partnership model. Where this partnership is non-existent we see the greatest increase in HIV transmission.
. . . I have stressed the importance of the community remaining vigilant. This vigilance relates not only to rises in HIV infection but also to those whom we look to for leadership. Our mission must be to challenge those in power. We must continue struggling for the rights of the community to be heard. We must remain ever hopeful of new more effective treatments and we must continue our call for a vaccine. We must highlight the inadequacies of our political system so that future Australians will not be threatened by HIV/ AIDS. We must continue to challenge those who delay and destabilise our efforts.