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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-06-22 Daily Xml
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GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR VACCINES AND IMMUNISATION

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (15:49): Last week, world leaders and private donors came together to pledge $4.3 billion to support the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), an organisation that facilitates vaccination programs for children living in the poorest nations in the world. In the midst of a global recession, with government bailouts and mass unemployment, countries such as United Kingdom, Australia, Norway, France, Japan and the US have nevertheless honoured their commitment to look after the poorest and most vulnerable amongst us, pledging this $4.3 billion to vaccinate children across all developing nations.

Many would consider vaccination the greatest triumph in the history of public health. Time magazine apparently has made this emphatic declaration, and I agree. It is right up there with sanitation and clean water supply in terms of its impact. Vaccines have helped cut childhood deaths by more than half since 1960. Thanks to vaccines, smallpox has been eradicated. Polio, a disease that once paralysed an estimated 350,000 children every single year, was once endemic in 125 countries and now, thanks to vaccination programs, is now prevalent in only four countries.

Thanks to the rollout of the measles vaccine, deaths from measles in Africa declined by 92 per cent between 2000 and 2008. In Bangladesh, a third of childhood mortality due to pneumonia has been cut since the introduction of a Haemophilus influenzae (Hib) vaccination program in 2009. These are just a few examples of the measurable results from vaccination programs.

Vaccines are one of the most cost-effective forms of international aid. They are inexpensive and easy to administer. Vaccines save lives; prevent diseases and disability; reduce long-term health costs, clinic visits and hospitalisations; and ensure children are able to attend school and receive an education. As Bill Gates, the co-founder of GAVI has said:

Vaccines are magic. They can save lives for a very low cost. As you save lives you actually make the kids far more healthy, they develop better. Mothers who have healthy kids decide to have smaller families—a lot of benefits that will allow these countries to become self-sufficient.

Australia committed $AUD200 million over three years to support GAVI's work in developing nations. This represents more than a three-fold increase in funding to GAVI from the Australian government. It also means that Australia is GAVI's fourth-largest government donor for the 2011-13 period. This is truly remarkable and something I think Australian citizens should be proud of.

I wholeheartedly congratulate Kevin Rudd on demonstrating great leadership in the international aid sector. At the announcement of this funding last week, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kevin Rudd, said:

What I see across the international community is a growing commitment to vaccinations as one of the most effective forms of aid delivery. This is a good investment.

We can be assured that Australia's $200 million investment will save lives. The total $4.3 billion funding will literally change the world. It will save over four million lives in the next four years.

Launched in 2000 by Bill Gates, GAVI works in close association with the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and the World Bank group. GAVI has already vaccinated 288 million children in 19 countries. These vaccinations have averted an estimated 5.4 million child deaths. This new funding will allow GAVI to expand programs into another 26 countries, including 13 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

While GAVI's existing programs include vaccines for hepatitis B, pertussis, measles, yellow fever and polio, the $4.3 billion pledged last week will go towards a targeted campaign addressing the two leading disease killers of children in developing nations: pneumonia and diarrhoeal disease. Approximately one in every three child deaths is caused by pneumonia or diarrhoea. That is a total of nearly 3 million children every single year. That is more child deaths than those caused by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

Pneumonia is one of the biggest killers of children in the developing world, accounting for nearly 20 per cent of all deaths in children under five years. It is estimated that 1.5 million children die from pneumonia every year, and that is roughly one child death every 20 seconds. Diarrhoael diseases such as rotavirus cause an estimated 1.3 million deaths in children annually, and they are more frequent in children who have limited access to clean water, sanitation and medical care.

Three million children die each year from these two diseases—needless, preventable, tragic deaths. That is why the world's leaders felt compelled to act on this issue last week, and they will, literally, change the course of the world's history because of it. This is a significant milestone for global health equity. As Bill Gates said at last week's announcement, 'This is absolutely human generosity at its finest.'

Time expired.

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