Sun 12 Feb 2017 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Prime Minister Bill English has signaled that Minister of Health Jonathan Coleman and his ministry need to be fronting up about unprecedented high rates of new HIV diagnoses at a time of financial crisis for HIV prevention work. PM Bill English chats with NZ AIDS Foundation chair David Friar on his Big Gay Out walkabout English strolled the Big Gay Out in Auckland this afternoon with hardly a hint of protest action or booing which had several times greeted his predecessor at previous Big Gay Outs. He chose not to speak from the stage after a walkabout during which he chatted with a number of people attending the event and posed for a string of photographs with smiling people of various genders and sexualities. Instead he fronted cameras and reporters in the fenced off security area behind the main stage. However, during his walkabout he spent considerable time in discussion with researchers struggling to convince government drug-buying agency Pharmac of the case for funding PrEP, the use of HIV medications to head off HIV transmission in situations where standard prevention techniques are not proving viable. Asked by GayNZ.com Daily News about the unprecedentedly high annual numbers of newly-diagnosed HIV infections in New Zealand in recent years, English said he hadn't seen those figures. He noted that infection rates in this country are far less than in many other countries, "but we can always do more." He said the cash-strapped NZ AIDS Foundation, which has accumulated half a million dollars in debt trying to maintain its service levels, "is certainly vigorously putting its case to us." As to whether whether he, a past Minister of Finance, is comfortable with the government having to now spend $32 million a year, and rising, on treatment and support of HIV-positive people but spending only $4.5 million on the NZAF's prevention work and nothing in recent years on attitudinal research to underpin prevention strategies English said "I think they have been under similar constraints that most of our public services have, where we've been trying pretty hard to get more for less and they've done a good job. And it looks like the kind of research they're now involved with is going to help make a case for the future." Pressed further, on whether the skyrocketing cost of HIV treatments and the worst new HIV diagnosis rates in thirty years was not sufficient reason to increase HIV prevention and research funding regardless of what's happening in other areas of Government health spending English said it's "a very good reason to be asking all those questions. If we saw some significant uplift in some debilitating health problems then I would expect the Minister of Health and the ministry to answer questions about what action should be taken." English said his not speaking to the crowd from the stage was not unusual. "When I go to community events I don't speak. I don't need to. It's a Sunday and people are enjoying themselves. There's plenty of other opportunities for political discussions and technical discussion of issues relating to the community."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Sunday, 12th February 2017 - 7:10pm