Wednesday, 23 September 2026

 Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:28): I move:

That this house:

(1)   notes that:

(a) Victoria has an historic opportunity to become one of the first places in the world to virtually eliminate HIV transmission;

(b) the Melbourne HIV consensus statement 2026 was launched last week at the Australasian HIV & AIDS Conference and is supported by community-controlled organisations and world-leading researchers and clinicians;

(c) this statement called for the Victorian HIV plan midpoint review to be publicly released, a report which is now considered overdue;

(d) to achieve the aim of virtually eliminating HIV by 2030 we must be able to track progress towards this goal, for which this report is critical;

(2)   in accordance with standing order 10.01, requires the Leader of the Government to table in the Council, within 30 days of the house agreeing to this resolution, the overdue 2025–26 midpoint review of the Victorian HIV Plan 2022–30.

We are at a historic point here in Victoria, where we are in a position to be one of the first places in the world to virtually eliminate HIV. I did not live through the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s, but I do think that young people today want to understand just how deeply this time impacted the community, particularly LGBTQI+ people. The loss, the fear and the human tragedy of those times is something that I feel really keenly aware of in speaking about this issue today. There are so many stories we can point to of the compassion, of the activism and of the sense of love that saw so many from the queer community rally around people who were ill, people who were dying of HIV/AIDS.

I had the privilege of attending the launch of the Victorian HIV Consensus Statement 2026 at the Australasian HIV & AIDS Conference just last week. This statement lays out a really clear pathway to achieving the aim of virtually eliminating HIV by the end of this decade, and I and my Greens colleagues absolutely support it. All parties have been called to support that statement. I cannot speak about HIV prevention and prevention of transmission without mentioning my friend and colleague Dr Tim Read. As was said in this place just yesterday, before becoming an MP Tim was a GP during the HIV/AIDS crisis, he was a sexual health doctor and he was a medical researcher whose PhD focused on HIV control. Tim had a lifelong commitment to HIV prevention and treatment during his time working as a doctor, which shifted to advocacy when he entered the Parliament. He was deeply committed to the elimination of HIV transmission, and I want to ensure that his advocacy continues as long as I have the privilege of remaining in this Parliament.

But for Victoria to achieve the aim of virtual elimination by 2030, we need to be sure that we are on track now. That is why it is so important for this midpoint review to be released, which was a key ask of the Victorian HIV Consensus Statement:

Finish the job: virtually eliminate HIV transmissions by 2030.

Victoria set 2025 as the year to virtually eliminate new HIV transmissions. That deadline has passed; this Parliament can finish the job by 2030.

We need to know what is working and what needs changing. There are communities out there who are not being reached by the usual avenues, people out there who may not be reached by health promotional material, who do not see themselves in health promotion campaigns. The consensus statement talks about targeting prevention and testing where diagnoses are falling – and rising – in some, particularly overseas-born gay and bisexual men, people not accessing specialist sexual health primary care and heterosexual men and women. It talks about funding HIV community controlled health promotion led by and for people living with and affected by HIV that reaches every affected community. It talks about sustaining and growing funding for community-controlled and peer-led organisations, centring the meaningful involvement of people living with HIV, including women with HIV.

If we are to meet this milestone of the virtual elimination of HIV transmission, we need to be sure we are on the path to success. That is why this interim review is so important. This work requires action. It requires political will from governments. We do not need a government that just nods along. We need a comprehensive approach. We need sustained funding to ensure all elements moving towards these goals are being achieved. Here in Victoria HIV treatment should be free, and the government should be covering the PBS co-payment on HIV medicine. This is something that Tim had been advocating for for a long time. We are effectively the last big state to charge for HIV treatment. We need to expand access to testing, to PrEP, to PEP and to condoms. We want to make it as easy as possible for people to access testing and to access support and preventative measures. We need to ensure that community-led initiatives can continue to do their vital work to improve awareness and to provide access to testing and treatment. Health beliefs and attitudes to accessing care are strongly socially determined, and not everyone is going to immediately access specialised sexual health services to get HIV testing and treatment, so having skilled people and people with lived experience out in the community providing appropriate peer support is critical to meeting people where they are at.

We need continued investment in community health centres and for sexual health care to be embedded in these community centres as part of a holistic health approach. At a time when places like the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre cannot offer a drop-in clinic and when Sexual Health Victoria has to close its CBD clinic, both due to funding concerns, we need this investment from government. Access to services is a key factor in reducing transmission and prevalence, and so now is the time for the government to be doing more, not less. Now is the time to show this state where we are at so we can make sure that we do all things possible to reach the end of the 2020s having achieved the goal that has been set out: to end the virtual transmission of HIV. I call on the government to release the overdue 2025–26 midpoint review of the Victorian HIV Plan 2022–30. I commend the motion to the house.

 Sheena WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (10:34): I rise to make a contribution on the short-form documents motion moved by Mr Puglielli regarding the production of the 2025–26 midpoint review of the Victorian HIV Plan 2022–30. In line with the usual conventions of this place, the government will not be opposing this motion, and I would like to thank Mr Puglielli for bringing this matter today. Given the subject matter of the motion before us, it is highly appropriate to briefly acknowledge the late Dr Tim Read. His extensive clinical work and dedicated research in sexual health and HIV played a vital role in shaping our state’s public health response and advancing the care of so many Victorians.

Victoria’s response to HIV has led the nation because it has always been built on evidence, harm reduction and genuine partnership with community-controlled organisations like Thorne Harbour Health, Living Positive Victoria and Positive Women Victoria. When we released the Victorian HIV Plan 2022–30 we set out a clear vision: the virtual elimination of new transmissions. We set our sights on reaching a 95–98–98 cascade by 2025, ensuring that 95 per cent of people living with HIV are diagnosed, 98 per cent of those diagnosed are on treatment and 98 per cent of people on treatment achieve an undetectable viral load. Crucially, the plan recognises that public health is about more than just viral suppression. It sets a target of 75 per cent of people living with HIV reporting a good quality of life and commits to driving reported stigma and discrimination in health care and social settings down to below 10 per cent by 2030.

The plan also lays bare the hard truths about where our system needs to adapt. The epidemic in Victoria is shifting. Over 40 per cent of new diagnoses are amongst people born overseas, with more than half of those from Asia, and over 40 per cent are now being diagnosed in low caseload general practices, rather than the specialised inner-city clinics that might come to mind. We know women are still being diagnosed late, because they often do not perceive themselves to be at risk. Thanks to life-saving therapies, 44 per cent of Victorians living with HIV are now aged over 55, but they additionally face complex comorbidities.

We are constantly investing in the future of prevention and treatment to meet these evolving challenges through things like the mRNA Victorian Research Acceleration Fund. This Labor government is directly backing local researchers to develop the next generation of mRNA vaccines and medicines. This program provides grants to fast-track mRNA-based therapeutic research and has proudly delivered funding to Victorian research teams to accelerate new cutting-edge mRNA-based treatments specifically for HIV. By investing in this technology, we are ensuring Victoria remains at the absolute forefront of this fight. We cannot ignore a key part of our response – that is, harm reduction. The plan highlights that every single dollar invested in needle and syringe programs saves our community $27 in healthcare costs.

I will take a moment to reflect on a recent visit I had to Thorne Harbour Health. I had the good fortune of joining the new Minister for Equality there. Whilst there I did get to see firsthand and meet with some of the clinicians working in that space. I want to draw attention to their outreach work with our First Nations communities, particularly through their centre, I believe in Prahran, where they work with First Nations communities living with HIV. To Peter Waples-Crowe and the entire team there at Thorne Harbour Health, I acknowledge you and your many, many years of leadership and work in this area as well as the Aboriginal community controlled health organisations that work in partnership with Thorne Harbour so well. I want to reaffirm my absolute commitment to Thorne Harbour Health and thank them for all that they do. Of course there are other organisations that I named like Living Positive Victoria and Positive Women Victoria. They are incredibly valued, and I just want to thank them.

We want the sector, our clinicians and the community to have the tools and information they need so we can finish what generations of health workers started and virtually eliminate HIV in Victoria once and for all, so, as I said, the government will not oppose this motion.

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (10:39): I rise to speak in support of motion 1643 in Mr Puglielli’s name, and I want to just make some comments regarding some of the points that he has raised in the house today, particularly in relation to what I was speaking to in the last motion. The Premier says integrity is not optional, but without transparency, you do not have that integrity. And for the life of me I do not know why the government is delaying the release of this midpoint review that was due out, the 2025–26 midpoint review of the Victorian HIV Plan 2022–30. Mr Puglielli outlined some very good points around what the state has been doing, and I want to turn to that too, and he also acknowledged the late Dr Tim Read. I did not get an opportunity to speak to Tim’s contribution to this very important area in public health, and I want to put on record, in the short time that I have, an acknowledgement of that and the tremendous discussions that I had with him over a number of issues relating to the health portfolio. I do recognise the work that he undertook in this very important area.

I want to go back to my own time as a young nurse in the 1980s when I was at the Alfred; that is where the AIDS patients came. AIDS was a death sentence. Nobody survived AIDS then. It was horrendous. There were so many unknowns. We have moved on over the last 40 years in such a tremendous way. There has been so much work done, and there needs to be much more work done. I am concerned about the rise in HIV now around some of our Pacific Island neighbours, where there is an increasing rate. The work that we do in this state can assist those communities, and we must be doing that.

I want to place on record the efforts of my colleague Mr Davis, who was the health minister in 2014 when we had the biggest medical conference here in Melbourne, the AIDS conference. It was tremendous. It was at a very tragic time, when MH17 went down and delegates did not come. It was just awful. But that was an incredible conference, with 12,000 delegates from over 170 countries, and really high profile speakers like Bill Clinton and Bob Geldof came. It was just extraordinary. The work we were doing at that time was really elevated, Melbourne’s and Victoria’s work in this area, with Dr Sharon Lewin, who was leading the charge and is an extraordinary scientist in this area.

Let us not forget what a Liberal government did. The Pronto! rapid testing site was launched under David Davis as health minister under a Liberal government, as were the Looking 4 Cure research and the pre-exposure prophylaxis, PrEP, treatment and prevention programs. All of those initiatives were started under Mr Davis, and I think not enough credit is given to the work that we did around a number of things, including this really important area. It was also Mr Davis who announced that the coalition government would amend section 19A of the Crimes Act 1958 to remove its HIV-specific discriminatory character. That work went on, and it was followed up by the Andrews Labor government when they followed on with that initiative that we said we would do. It is very important to reduce the stigma and understand that this is a very serious health condition. People do live with HIV very, very successfully. I have known people, friends of mine, who have had HIV who, sadly, lost their lives. But there is a lot of good work being done, and we need to continue on that. I do note that New South Wales have released their plan, and they are looking at the very issues around strengthening testing and improving access to care and support for those that are living with HIV.

I go back to the start of my contribution: I do not know what the delay is. Why is the government not releasing this report? What are they hiding? What are they doing, actually, more to the point? What is this government actually doing in this really important area? I say so much work has been done, but we have seen a failure by Labor to deliver on some very basic and fundamental initiatives. Mr Puglielli mentioned the cuts to community health and where a lot of these programs are delivered. This is a Labor government that is making cuts in health care that are going to have a direct impact on patient outcomes. Again, I say well done for bringing this motion to the house today.

 Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:44): I am pleased to also rise to speak on Mr Puglielli’s motion and to thank him for bringing this to the house’s attention. In doing so I want to briefly acknowledge the gaping hole in our Parliament with the loss of the immense contribution that we were blessed to have over eight years from Dr Tim Read, the late member for Brunswick, and his incredible expertise and passion in this area.

This is a very important subject, and it is worth us having some time in the Parliament today to discuss it. HIV continues to be a major health issue facing many communities in our state and nation, including to a largely more pronounced degree the LGBTIQA+ community. I acknowledge contributions in a bipartisan way across a long time and from both sides of politics in leading that fight and leading Victoria to be at the forefront of that work. We have seen the national conversation pick up, and the launch two years ago of a federal LGBTIQA+ health strategy for the very first time, coming in the wake of the Victorian strategy which has been there for some time, was a big step towards that. The then assistant minister Ged Kearney worked very hard on that, as have successive health ministers and equality ministers here in the only jurisdiction in Australia that has a dedicated Minister for Equality.

The midpoint review, which this motion discusses, is currently underway. While I am fully supportive of this motion – the government will not be opposing it and is supportive of the opportunity to talk about and to apply that positive pressure to this conversation, because it needs to be discussed – it would be folly for the government to release a review before it is completed. That work is continuing, that work is underway, and it would not be appropriate for the government to be releasing a review before that review is complete.

The review forms a part of a number of other initiatives that this government has continued to focus on, including support for the community health sector, including support for remarkable organisations such as Thorne Harbour Health, which Ms Watt referred to in her contribution today. I acknowledge them and all the very many other groups who have worked so hard in this space to bring to the forefront promotion and better health outcomes for members of Victoria’s LGBTIQA+ community. In a small way I have been really privileged to join in the efforts through the minister’s LGBTIQA+ taskforce over the past few years, including co-chairing the health and wellbeing working group, alongside the incredible Alex Potter and a number of other dedicated people who have brought their passion and their lived experience to that issue.

Ms Crozier referenced the incredible forum in 2014, and I do acknowledge that too. It was a landmark time for us to bring together the real, pre-eminent experts across the world on this issue, and it was sadly marred by the tragedy of MH17. We say ‘tragedy’, but it was the actions of a terrorist state in shooting down a plane that had so many people coming to this country, to this conference, some of the world’s leading experts on this issue – the cure could have been on that plane. It is a tragedy for the loss of what we had. It was a criminal, vile act from a despicable regime. It did really mar that conference, but despite that it was still very significant. Victoria does continue to proudly work fiercely on HIV prevention and cure, and we will continue to do so. This government, with its continued focus on support for the community health sector, including Thorne Harbour and others, as well as advanced medical research, will very much continue to do that. I am very much looking forward to talking to the midpoint review once it is completed.

Motion agreed to.