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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-09-19 Daily Xml
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Sexual Health Services Funding

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (15:44): We know that the state Liberal government's first budget is made up of cruel cuts impacting our community's most vulnerable people. The Premier, who promised more jobs, lower costs and better services, is slashing public sector jobs, jacking up Housing Trust rents and cutting vital services. This is a budget of cuts, closures and privatisations.

One of the most important roles of government is to support the most vulnerable in our community, provide help in time of need and ensure that no-one is left behind. That was a key test for the new Liberal government, one that they failed most spectacularly. Would they support the most vulnerable in our community? Clearly they have failed that test.

The budget was handed down on 4 September, also known as World Sexual Health Day, ironically as it turns out. On this day, jurisdictions around the world were reflecting on how they could do more to promote sexual health and support those grappling with sexually transmitted diseases. On that day the Queensland Labor government announced that it had removed AIDS from its list of notifiable conditions. This important moment was a culmination of decades of work and advocacy. Government funding and community activism had made AIDS less transmissible than ever before, and continuing government funding and support in Queensland made this possible, That, of course, makes what happened in South Australia look even more shameful.

On World Sexual Health Day the Liberal government unveiled brutal cuts to HIV prevention and support programs in our state. Funding for SHine SA sexual health programs was slashed; funding for blood-borne virus and STI prevention programs was slashed; and, funding for the Cheltenham Place HIV refuge was also slashed. The Minister for Health and Wellbeing even touted these cuts in his media release as being signs of sustainable, efficient health services. That is code that could have been written by George Orwell's ministry of truth, I submit. Simply put, this government is abandoning South Australians with HIV and AIDS just to save a few dollars, and making thin excuses to justify it.

We have made a lot of progress toward the elimination of HIV in this country, in our state and in the world, and people living with HIV and AIDS today have a better chance of living a full life than ever before. The former Labor government made huge progress on the prevention and treatment of HIV and on educating the wider community on the impacts of HIV for people living with that virus.

That does not mean that the fight is over. That does not mean that people living with HIV and AIDS still do not face huge challenges every day. They need our support and they need their government to not cut the services they rely on. In an article headlined, 'HIV advocates condemn the SA budget decision to cut funding to STI services', the ABC gives a voice to the HIV sufferer Steven Dewhirst. He tells of the 32 tablets he takes daily, of the social stigma that he continues to face and the abandonment he feels from this state Liberal government.

These cuts have also been condemned by Centacare, the providers of the Cheltenham Place HIV refuge. Cheltenham Place provides vital support and community for people suffering not only from HIV but also the stigma that surrounds it. It provides support and residential respite for many people in our community in a non-discriminatory way. Yet, this government has cut $411,000 in annual funding to Centacare for Cheltenham Place, and attempted to palm off responsibility to more appropriate agencies.

Well, minister, Cheltenham Place is the most appropriate agency to provide these vital services, services that save your government money in fewer emergency department admissions or more expensive health interventions. People living with HIV and other sexual health conditions need this support. They are calling for our help, but this government has abandoned them.

This is the Liberal Party government that has attacked and then axed the Safe Schools program right around this country. This is the Liberal Party government that subjected the LGBTI community to a divisive national vote on our civil rights at the federal level, and now this is a Liberal government that is slashing funding for HIV services—services heavily relied upon by the LGBTI community and others living with HIV in South Australia.

Of all the cuts in this Liberal budget, these are the most shameful. The Liberal government is failing in its duty to vulnerable South Australians, and the bitter irony, as I said earlier, is that the paltry savings achieved to the health budget will end up costing many times—multiple times—the amount that has been saved in more expensive medical interventions, in hospitals and in emergency departments.

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