Minister refuses to release HIV report

Minister refuses to release HIV report

Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek has refused to release a report which HIV advocates and health professionals say is vital to meeting a target to reduce HIV infections in Australia. The report is the result of three years of work by a Ministerial Advisory Committee set up to examine legal issues, discrimination and stigma in different states arising from laws such as criminalisation of non-disclosure of a person’s HIV status.

In October, the nation’s leading HIV groups requested the report be released after it was revealed that HIV infections had increased by more than eight percent in 2012. Following this, the federal government and leading HIV groups committed to UN targets of reducing HIV infections by 50 percent by 2015

The report, which has the lengthy title of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Blood Borne Viruses and STIs (MACBBVS) Legal Working Group Report, was finalised earlier this year and sent to the minister for final consideration.

“The government is considering the report, which is not yet publicly available,” a spokesman for the minister told the Star Observer.

The spokesman declined to say when the report might be released.

Australian Federation Of AIDS Organisations (AFAO) executive director Rob Lake said the report was needed so Australia could work towards meeting the 2015 target of reduced infections and that the clock was ticking.

“The report deals with the legal issues relating to HIV such as discrimination, laws relating to sex workers; all sorts of laws and policies which help to make HIV prevention difficult,” he told the Star Observer.

Lake said the minister has had the finished report for some time but had so far made no moves to release its findings to AFAO and other HIV groups.

“It’s been out since earlier this year and that is why we have asked to have it, so it can be considered,” he said.

“Our member groups were involved in the development of it and legal issues are important particularly in terms of things like disclosure and there are conflicting laws around the country which need to be resolved.”

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